Date: 1926

"In the goods yard at Paddington she had almost pounced on the clue, the clue to the secret country of her mind."

— Warner, Sylvia Townsend (1893-1978)

Date: 1931

"My Waxen heart, when near the Flame, / Yields to th' imprinted mould" but "hardens in the Cold"

— Tickell, Thomas (1685-1740)

Date: 1936

"The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews."

— Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

Date: 1937

"Figure on her waxen mind / Images of life refin'd."

— Philips, Ambrose (1674-1749)

Date: 1940

"The provinces of his body revolted, / The squares of his mind were empty, / Silence invaded the suburbs, / The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers."

— Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

Date: 1949

"It was as though their two minds had opened and the thoughts were flowing from one into the other through their eyes."

— Orwell, George (1903-1950)

Date: 1953

"Should poets bicycle-pump the human heart / Or squash it flat?"

— Amis, Kingsley (1922-1995)

Date: 1957

"'Really, your mind--' ... 'Like a sink, my nephew Raymond used to say,' Miss Marple agreed, nodding her head briskly. 'But I always told him, sinks are necesary domestic equipment and actually very hygienic.'"

— Christie, Agatha (1890-1976)

Date: 1959

"The heart's tough shell is still to crack / When, spent of all its wine and bread, / Unwinkingly the altar lies / Wreathed in its sour breath, cold and dead, / A server has put out its eyes."

— Hill, Geoffrey (b. 1932)

Date: 1984

"That whole private mythology, in which I believe totally, is a collaboration between one's conscious mind and those obsessions that, one by one, present themselves as stepping-stones."

— Ballard, J. G. (1930-2009)