Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"By many, conversation is esteemed as a theatre or a school: but, after the morning has been occupied by the labours of the library, I wish to unbend rather than to exercise my mind; and in the interval between tea and supper I am far from disdaining the innocent amusement of a game at cards."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"While I served in the militia, before and after the publication of my essay, this idea ripened in my mind; nor can I paint in more lively colours the feelings of the moment, than by transcribing some passages, under their respective dates, from a journal which I kept at that time."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"Her form and her mind were of equal elasticity."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"Edgar, to whom the sun-beams of the mind gave a glow which not all the sparkling rays of the brightest eyes could emit, respected her modesty too highly to combat it, and, dropping the subject, enquired what was become of Eugenia."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"And Eugenia, to whose early reflecting mind every new character and new scene opened a fresh fund for thought, if not for knowledge, was charmed to take a nearer view of what promised such food for observation."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"The form and the mind of Lavinia were in the most perfect harmony."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"He saw how profound was the impression made upon her mind, not merely of her personal evils, but of what she conceived to be the misconduct of her friends."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"An absent smile, and a few faint acknowledgments of her goodness were all she could return: Eugenia abandoned when she might have been served, Edgar contemning when he might have been approving---these were the images of her mind, which resisted entrance to all other."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"Her mind was a soil which received and naturalized all that was sown in it."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)