Date: 1758

"As you would not wish to sail in a large, and finely decorated, and gilded Ship, and sink: so neither is it eligible to inhabit a grand and sumptuous House, and be in a Storm [of Passions and Cares]."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1792

"But souls in common are a dreary waste, / By brambles, thistles, barb'rous docks disgrac'd; / That need the ploughshare, harrow, and the fire--"

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1826

A woman's "reason [may be] ship-wrecked upon her passion, and the hulk of her understanding lies thumping against the rock of her fury"

— King, Thomas (1730-1805)

Date: 2000

"It's the medium-sized thoughts that jump ship in an emergency."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)