Date: 1715

"THEN as to Correction, the Heart being hardned, as before, by Opinion and Practice, and especially in a Belief that he ought not to be corrected, the Rod of Correction has a different Effect; for as the Blow of a Stripe makes an Impression on the Heart of a Child, as stamping a Seal does upon th...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1715

"How soft! how pliable the Minds of little Children are! how like Wax they lie, ready to be moulded into any Form, and receive any Impression, that the diligent Application of Parents thinks fit to make upon them!"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1715

"From whence also Parents are warned to be very careful, that by their Example or Negligence, those first softned Circumstances of their Childrens Minds are not pass'd over without suitable Applications, to forming them a right, filling them with Learning and Knowledge, and with just Principles, ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1718

"A thousand little Nerves She sends / Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends; / And These in Gratitude again / Return their Spirits to the Brain; / In which their Figure being printed / (As just before, I think, I hinted) / Alma inform'd can try the Case, / As She had seen upon the Place. // Thus, w...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1719

"No one, that shall ever read this Account, will expect that I should be able to describe the Horrors of my Soul at this terrible Vision, I mean, that even while it was a Dream, I even dreamed of those Horrors; nor is it any more possible to describe the Impression that remain'd upon my Mind, whe...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"[A]nd this I must observe with Grief too, that the Discomposure of my Mind had too great Impressions also upon the religious Part of my Thoughts, for the Dread and Terror of falling into the Hands of Savages and Canibals, lay so upon my Spirits, that I seldom found my self in a due Temper for Ap...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

A "strange Impression upon the Mind, from we know not what Springs, and by we know not what Power," may over-rule us

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I thought the Impression was so strong upon my Mind, that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible Direction"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"The Words were very apt to my Case, and made some Impression upon my Thoughts at the time of reading them"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"But it was all to no Purpose, I had an irresistible Desire to the Voyage; and I told her, I thought there was something so uncommon in the Impressions I had upon my Mind for the Voyage, that it would be a Kind of resisting Providence, if I should attempt to stay at Home."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)