Date: 1704

"[A]s the face of nature never produces rain but when it is overcast and disturbed, so human understanding, seated in the brain, must be troubled and overspread by vapours ascending from the lower faculties to water the invention, and render it fruitful."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1709

An "early prejudice" may have "implanted in the mind" a "false persuasion"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1709

A "false persuasion" "implanted in the mind" by prejudice may be rooted out

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1727

Young gentlemen may be "wholly neglected and left to branch forth into numberless Follies, like a rich Field uncultivated, that abounds in nothing but tall Weeds and gaudy scentless Flowers"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1727

Women have the same "Passions and Inclinations [as Men], which when let loose without a Curb, grow wild and untameable, defy all Laws and Rules, and can be subdued by nothing but what they are seldom Mistresses of"

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1732

"Represent to yourself the man of mind, or human nature in general, that for so many ages had lain obnoxious to the frauds of designing, and the follies of weak men; how it must be overrun with prejudices and errors, what firm and deep roots they must have taken, and consequently how difficult a ...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"On the other hand, those who duly employ their faculties in the search of truth, take especial care to weed out of their minds, and extirpate all such notions or prejudices as were planted in them before they arrived at the free and entire use of reason."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"You have rooted up a world of notions: I should be glad to see what fine things you have planted in their stead."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"Have patience, good Euphranor. I will show you in the first place, that whatever was sound and good we leave untouched, and encourage it to grow in the mind of man. And secondly, I will show you what excellent things we have planted in it."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"And suppose that in man, after a certain season, the appetite of lust or the faculty of reason shall shoot forth, open, and display themselves as leaves and blossoms do in a tree; would you therefore deny them to be natural to him, because they did not appear in his original infancy?"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)