Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"In all these cases, Ideas in the Mind, quickly fade, and often vanish quite out of the Understanding, leaving no more footsteps or remaining Characters of themselves, than Shadows do flying over fields of Corn; and the Mind is as void of them, as if they never had been there."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1691

"I cannot conceive the true Cause hereof [that Men of Learning are uncouth in their discourse], unless it be, that as Plants are Choakt by over-much Moisture, and Lamps are Stifl'd with too much Oil; so are the Actions of the Mind overwhelm'd by over-abundance of Matter and Study."

— Blount, Thomas Pope, Sir (1649-1697)

Date: 1699

The opponent of innatism "might as well expect, that in a Seed, there should be Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit; or that in the rudiments of an Embryo there should be all the Parts and Members of a compleat Body, distinctly represented"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Date: 1708, 1714

"But the knowledg of our Passions in their very Seeds, the measuring well the Growth and Progress of Enthusiasm, and the judging rightly of its natural Force, and what command it has over our very Senses, may teach us to oppose more successfully those Delusions which come arm'd with the specious ...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: Tuesday, June 28, to Thursday, June 30, 1709

"For this reason, I sat by an eminent story-teller and politician who takes half an ounce in five seconds, and has mortgaged a pretty tenement near the town, merely to improve and dung his brains with this prolific powder."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1710, 1714

"For company is an extreme provocative to fancy and, like a hotbed in gardening, is apt to make our imaginations sprout too fast."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"So that, if there be no certain inspector or auditor established within us to take account of these opinions and fancies in due form and minutely to animadvert upon their several growths and habits, we are as little like to continue a day in the same will as a tree, during the summer, in the sam...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: May 10, 1711

"The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and Good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 19, 1711

"Extinguish Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Blossoms will fall of themselves, when the Root that nourishes them is destroyed."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Wednesday, June 13, 1711

"When therefore the obscene Passions in particular have once taken Root and spread themselves in the Soul, they cleave to her inseparably, and remain in her for ever, after the Body is cast off and thrown aside."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)