Date: 1665

Minds are "like smooth paper never writ upon, / When folded up, by some impression / Marks will remain it never had before, / And ne're return to former smoothness more."

— Howard, Sir Robert (1626-1698)

Date: 1667

"Yet all those billows in your breast did meet / A heart so firm, so loyal, and so sweet, / That over them you greater conquest made / Than your Immortal Father ever had."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1677

"I wou'd ha' rent / With my just hands that Rock, that Marble heart; / I wou'd have div'd through Seas of bloud to find it, / To tear the cruel Quarry from its Center."

— Lee, Nathaniel (1653-1692)

Date: 1687

"[B]ut thanks be prais'd the Generosity of our Cavaliers has open'd their obdurate Hearts with a Golden key, that let's 'em in at all opportunities"

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1694

On may achieve a "noble conquest" over his own passions

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1694

"Pray mind me, Sir, to shew my Shape and Aire; that as the Loadstone does the Obedient Iron--should draw by force to me all Hearts but yours--."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1694

"Thy mighty Soul, stamp'd of Heav'n's noblest Coin, / More Pure than Gold, more Precious and Divine, / Does in thy Everlasting Vertues shine."

— Cobb, Samuel (bap. 1675, d. 1713)

Date: 1705

"An Excellent Artist is not like the Phænix, for he does Justice to the Merits of others; for Judgment governs our Thoughts and Ideas, and makes us know our selves to be what we are."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1705

"All the World knows it is an Heroick Action not to be transported by our Passions; and tho' they may chance to assault our Wills, yet that Judgment that governs 'em will make us relish our Reasons"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1705

"'Tis a Fault which Authors of Romances commit in every Page; they would Blind the Reader with this Miracle, but 'tis necessary the Miracle shou'd be feisable, to make an Impression in the Brain of Reasonable Persons."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)