Date: 1768

"I vow, I never had my affections more tenderly awakened; or do I remember an incident in my life, where the dissipated spirits, to which my reason had been a bubble, were so suddenly call'd home."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1768

"When my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it, to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rose-buds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthen'd and refresh'd."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1768

"Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions, tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1776

"I am provoked at this natural incapacity of conveying my sentiments to you; words are but a cloak, or rather a clog, to our ideas; there should be no curtain before the hearts of friends; and the longing I have ever felt for an intuitive converse, is to me a strong argument for a future state."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Alarmed as all my passions were, her gentle accents vibrated upon my heart, and calmed each throbbing pulse."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"I have been long labouring to consider this idol of my heart as misers do their hidden treasure; though hopeless of enjoying it, yet while I thought 'twas safe, I could not look upon myself undone."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"My eyes are closed to beauty; I only feel its power, when I turn them inward, and gaze upon the image in my heart."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"O Charles! the treasures of my Lucy's mind have been concealed till now; beneath the mask of gaiety she hid the tenderest, noblest feelings of the heart, the justest sentiments, and the most perfect female understanding."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Can you, my once dear friend, without abhorrence, think of her who robbed you of a brother, and was the unhappy cause his pure and spotless soul was stained with blood?"

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1796

"'Your son,' concluded he, 'will quickly put off his dirty dress—The dress hath not stained the mind—that is fair and honourable.""

— Edgeworth, Maria