Date: 1752

"'O Miss Mathews! we have heard of Men entirely Masters of their Passions, and of Hearts which can carry this Fire in them, and conceal it at their Pleasure."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1752

"Perhaps there may be such; but if there are, those Hearts may be compared, I believe, to Damps, in which it is more difficult to keep Fire alive than to prevent its blazing: In mine, it was placed in the Midst of combustible Matter."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1753

One may make a new conquest and gain "a heart all flaming and adoration"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1753

"A young amorous heart, I think, may with some analogy be compared to tinder, as it is ready to take fire from every spark that falls"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1753

"Passion! the great man's guide, the poor man's blame; / The soldier's lawrel, and the sigher's flame"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1753

"He found me happiest of the Happy. Fortune and Honour crown'd me; and Love and Peace liv'd in my Heart. One Spark of Folly lurk'd there; That too he found; and by deceitful Breath blew it to Flames that have consum'd me."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1753

"A Furnace rages in this Heart--I have been too hasty."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1754

"Souls of tinder, discretions of flimsy gauze, that conceal not their folly--One day they will think as I do; and perhaps before they have daughters who will convince them of the truth of my assertion"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1755

"Better by far in lonesome den / To sleep unheard-of--than to glow / With treacherous wildfire of then brain, / Th' intoxicated poet's bane."

— Knight, Henrietta [née St John], Lady Luxborough (1699-1756)

Date: 1755

"The imperfect sense of some examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)