Date: 1691

"Towards the end of which Chapter Evander confesses his Wit has a little run away with him; so ungovernable a thing is towring Fancy, when not hand-cufft by powerful Reason, flying out against Learning, beloved Learning, at so Satyrical a rate as almost makes his heart bleed to read it, when he t...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"'Tis true, I have always an Idea in my Soul which presents me a better form than what I have in this Book made use of, but I cannot catch it, nor fit it to my purpose."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"But though there is nothing in this Book I have cudgel'd my Brains about, yet I must confess, during my Prenticeship, I was a kind of Persecutor of Nature, and would fain then have chang'd the dull Lead of my Brain into finer Mettal."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"I wear my Wit in my Belly, and my Guts in my Head, a very Natural might bob my Brains, my Pia-mater is not worth the ninth part of a Sparrow."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

'My very Brains (as Manichæus's Skin) are stuff'd with Chaff."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Were there any Metempsychosis, my Soul would want a Lodging, no single Beast could fit me; for I shou'd out of pure love to novelty change more Lodgings than ever Pythagoras's Soul did."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Twice every day a thousand Fancies and Fegaries crowd into my Noddle so thick as if my Brain kept open-house for all the Maggots in nature."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"So that, Reader, you see my Soul is a proper Tenant for the House it lives in; both which were naturally ill Match'd, to shew, that a generous Spirit may be lodg'd under any shape."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"But alas, I had not been sixty minutes Alphabetizing and sorting of Books before my old Rambling Maggot began to crawl and bite afresh; upon which I immediately grew as fickle and wavering as if I had drank Liquor distill'd from a Womans Brains; and nothing would satisfie me now till I saw the S...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or th...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)