Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711

"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1710, 1734

There are ideas in the mind of God, "which are so many marks or notes that direct him how to produce sensations in our minds" just as a musician uses notes to produce a tune.

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: From Saturd. March 11. to Tuesd. March 14. 1710

"It was then very pleasant to look into the Hearts of the whole Company; for the Balls of Sight are so form'd, that one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to another to read his Heart with."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Friday, October 26, 1711

"A Man, they say, wears the Picture of his Mind in his Countenance; and one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to his who looks at him to read his Heart."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Friday, June 20, 1712

"My Son, th' Instruction that my Words impart, / Grave on the Living Tablet of thy Heart; / And all the wholesome Precepts that I give, / Observe with strictest Reverence, and live."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1713, 1734

"You cannot say objects are in your mind, as books in your study: or that things are imprinted on it, as the figure of a seal upon wax."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1728

"At our Birth the Imagination is intirely a Tabula Rasa or perfect Blank, without any other Materials either for a Simple View or any Other Operation of the Intellect"

— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)

Date: 1728

"With respect to the simple Perception of Mere Sense he is still upon the same Level with Brutes; he is altogether Passive; he retains all the Signatures and Impressions of outward Objects, but in the very Order only in which they are stamped; with Transposing or Altering, Dividing, or Compoundin...

— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)

Date: 1732

"But suppose my Mind white Paper, and without being at any pains to extirpate my Opinions, or prove your own, only say what you wou'd write thereon, or what you wou'd teach me in case I were teacheable."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1744

"That philosopher [Aristotle] held that the mind of man was a tabula rasa, and that there were no innate ideas."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)