Date: May 16, 1699

"All others have a right to be followed as far as I, i.e. as far as the evidence of what they say convinces; and of that my own understanding alone must be judge for me, and nothing else."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1709, 1714

"And I am persuaded, that had Reason herself been to judg of her own Interest, she wou'd have thought she receiv'd more Advantage in the main from that easy and familiar way, than from the usual stiff Adherence to a particular Opinion."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1709, 1714

"But according to refin'd Sense, the only well-advis'd Persons, as to this World, are errant Knaves; and they alone are thought to serve themselves, who serve their Passions, and indulge their loosest Appetites and Desires."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: January 3, 1750-51, 1807

"It is the privilege of the good, to establish their empire in the hearts of their dependents; this is the triumph of my dear Mr. Richardson; and then indeed does his excellent heart exult, when he sees every one the happier and better for their connexion with him!"

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1773

"The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason: but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons, liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1773

"The resentment which, instead of being expressed, is nursed in secret, and continually aggravated by the imagination, will, in time, become the ruling passion; and then, how horrible must be his case, whose kind and pleasurable affections are all swallowed up by the tormenting as well as detesta...

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1773

"In those dark ages, you will find no single character so interesting as that of Mahomet; that bold impostor, who extended his usurped dominion equally over the minds and properties of men, and propagated a new religion, whilst he founded a new empire, over a large portion of the globe."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1774

"I expect the incomparable fair one of Hamburg, that prodigy of beauty, and paragon of good sense, who has enslaved your mind, and inflamed your heart."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1774

"Please the eyes and the ears, they will introduce you to the heart; and nine times in ten, the heart governs the understanding."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1774

"It is a very old and very true maxim, that those kings reign the most secure and the most absolute, who reign in the hearts of their people."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)