Date: Saturday, March 31, 1711

"I am so unhappy, as to know that what I am fond of are Trifles, and that what I neglect is of the greatest Importance: In short, I find a Contest in my own Mind between Reason and Fashion."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, April 4, 1711

"In fine, the whole Assembly is made up of absent Men, that is, of such Persons as have lost their Locality, and whose Minds and Bodies never keep Company with one another."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, April 4, 1711

"In fine, the whole Assembly is made up of absent Men, that is, of such Persons as have lost their Locality, and whose Minds and Bodies never keep Company with one another."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Saturday, April 7, 1711

"When Adam is introduced by Milton describing Eve in Paradise, and relating to the Angel the Impressions he felt upon seeing her at her first Creation, he does not represent her like a Grecian Venus by her Shape or Features, but by the Lustre of her Mind which shone in them, and gave them their P...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, June, 1711

"The indolent Man descends from the Dignity of his Nature, and makes that Being which was Rational merely Vegetative: His Life consists only in the meer Encrease and Decay of a Body, which, with relation to the rest of the World, might as well have been uninformed, as the Habitation of a reasonab...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, August 1, 1711

"Thou art a Person of a light Mind; thy Drum is a Type of thee, it soundeth because it is empty."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Friday, August 1711

"This was a childish Amusement when I was carried away with outward Appearance, but you make a deeper Impression, and affect the secret Springs of the Mind; you charm the Fancy, sooth the Passions, and insensibly lead the Reader to that Sweetness of Temper that you so well describe; you rouse Gen...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Thursday, August 9, 1711

"Where Sovereigns have it [love of glory] by Impressions received from Education only, it creates an Ambitious rather than a Noble Mind; where it is the natural Bent of the Prince's Inclination, it prompts him to the Pursuit of Things truly Glorious."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Tuesday, September 11, 1711

"I am unhappily far gone in Building, and am one of that Species of Men who are properly denominated Castle-Builders, who scorn to be beholden to the Earth for a Foundation, or dig in the Bowels of it for Materials; but erect their Structures in the most unstable of Elements, the Air, Fancy alone...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, September 12, 1711

"So very dreadful had he made himself to me, that altho' it is above twenty Years since I felt his heavy Hand, yet still once a Month at least I dream of him, so strong an Impression did he make on my Mind."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)