Date: 1719

"These were the Subject of the first Night's Cogitation, after I was come home again, while the Apprehensions which had so over-run my Mind were fresh upon me, and my Head was full of Vapours, as above."

— 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

"Discomposure of the Mind" must "be as great a Disability as that of the Body"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"The Thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very Soul within me, and distress'd my Mind so much that I could not soon recover it, to think what I should have done, and how I not only should not have been able to resist them, but even should not have had Presence of Mind enough to do what I might have...

— 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

"There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in View, or be it some Object, though not in View, yet render'd present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager Embrac...

— 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

"Pray note, all this was the Fruit of a disturb'd Mind, an impatient Temper, made as it were desperate, by the long Continuance of my Troubles, and the Disappointments I had met in the Wreck I had been on Board of, and where I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly long'd for, viz. so...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"During the long Time that Friday has now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a Foundation of religious Knowledge in his Mind."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I found it was not so easy to imprint right Notions in his Mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)