Date: 1796

"The mind of a young woman lady should be clear and unsullied, like a sheet of white paper, or her own fairer face"

— Hays, Mary (1760-1843)

Date: 1797

"Their [young persons'] minds are like a sheet of white paper, which takes any impression that it is proposed to make upon it."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1797

"An habitual gloom and severity prevailed over the deep lines of his countenance; and his eyes were so piercing that they seemed to penetrate, at a single glance, into the hearts of men, and to read their most secret thoughts; few persons could support their scrutiny, or even endure to meet them ...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1800

"The pen is a pacifyer. It checks the mind's career; it circumscribes her wanderings."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1813

"O Spirit! through the sense / By which thy inner nature was apprised / Of outward shows, vague dreams have rolled, / And varied reminiscences have waked / Tablets that never fade."

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: 1817, 1818

"My mind became the book through which I grew / Wise in all human wisdom"

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: 1817

"Not until my dream became / Like a child's legend on the tideless sand. / Which the first foam erases half, and half / Leaves legible"

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: 1817, 1818

"Look on your mind--it is the book of fate-- / Ah! it is dark with many a blazoned name / Of misery--all are mirrors of the same"

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Date: 1818?

"Upon his heart with Iron pen / He wrote Ye must be born again."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1822

"Thou didst say thou knewest / A Jew, whose spirit is a chronicle / Of strange and secret and forgotten things."

— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)