Date: 1744

"[W]e are here idle at present, but shall not long be so; and you will have occasions enough to prove your courage, and gratify that love of arms which, my brother informs me, is the predominant passion of your soul."

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

Date: 1744, 1753

"But this Agreement of Orgueil and his Wife, to bury Camilla's Father with Decency, by the Pleasure it gave her, renewed David's former Blindness, again enslaved his Mind to Orgueil, and fixed his Chain as strong as ever."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1744, 1753

"Thus my fancied Friends became my Plagues, and my real ones, by their Sufferings, tore up my Heart by the Roots, and frightened me into the bearing the insolent Persecutions of the others--I found my Mind in such Chains as are much worse than any Slavery of the Body."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1747-8

"Riches were, are, and always will be, his predominant passion."

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

Date: 1747-8

"My predominant passion is Girl, not Gold; nor value I This, but as it helps me to That, and gives me independence."

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

Date: 1747-8

"But let me touch upon thy predominant passion, Revenge; for Love [What can be the love of a rake?] is but second to that, as I have often told thee, tho' it has set thee into raving at me."

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

Date: 1747-8

"But by the fierceness of mine, as my trembling hands seized hers, I soon made fear her predominant passion."

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

Date: 1747-8

"How difficult does every man find it, as well as me, to forego a predominant passion? I have three passions that sway me by turns; all imperial ones. Love, Revenge, Ambition, or a desire of conquest."

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

Date: 1747-8

"See that your own predominant passions, whatever they be, hurry you not into as much wickedness, as mine do me."

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

Date: 1747-8

"Who, let me ask, that has it in his power to gratify a predominant passion, be it what it will, denies himself the gratification?"

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