Date: 1705

"For tho' he had a Head as well qualified for Business as any Man Born, his Heart was all made up of Pleasure, which was the Loadstone govern'd all the Actions of his Life, which might have been as Glorious as the Riches of Albigion, and the entire Affection of the People cou'd make them."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1710

"In that Particular I was sure my fair Agnes was exceeded by none; her Charms were faultless and peculiar, but her Mind was a Rock upon which my Resolution struck."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"Oh, Melliora! didst thou but know the thousandth Part of what this Moment I endure, the strong Convulsions of my warring Thoughts, thy Heart, steel'd as it is, and frosted round with Virtue, wou'd burst its icy Shield, and melt in Tears of Blood, to pity me."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1720

"Ah vile Heart, more obdurate and harder than Adamant! upon this cruel Anvil was forged the Chains that bound up my unlucky Destiny!"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1736

"To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1759

"Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient; every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the past or future, so that one desire easily gave way to another, as a second stone cast into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1766

"Perhaps I may catch up even one from the gulph, and that will be great gain; for is there upon earth a gem so precious as the human soul?"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1766

"We should then find that creatures, whose souls are held as dross, only wanted the hand of a refiner; we should then find that wretches, now stuck up for long tortures, lest luxury should feel a momentary pang, might, if properly treated, serve to sinew the state in times of danger."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)