Date: 1678

"I did not see him with my bodily eyes, but with the eyes of mine understanding; and thus it was."

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

Date: 1719

"I expected every Wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the Ship fell down, as I thought, in the Trough or Hollow of the Sea, we should never rise more; and in this Agony of Mind, I made many Vows and Resolutions, that if it would please God here to spare my Life this one Voyage, i...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"In a Word, I had nothing about me but a Knife, a Tobacco-pipe, and a little Tobacco in a Box; this was all my Provision, and this threw me into terrible Agonies of Mind, that for a while I run about like a Mad-man."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I threw down the Book, and with my Heart as well as my Hands lifted up to Heaven, in a Kind of Extasy of Joy, I cry'd out aloud, Jesus, thou Son of David, Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour, give me Repentance!

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I found indeed some Intervals of Reflection, and the serious Thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes, but I shook them off, and rouz'd my self from them as it were from a Distemper, and applying my self to Drinking and Company, soon master'd the Return of those Fits, for so...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"Then terrible Thoughts rack'd my Imagination about their having found my Boat, and that there were People here; and that if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater Numbers and devour me; that if it should happen so that they should not find me, yet they would find my Enclosure, de...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"[N]ay, they were not subjected to so many Distempers and Uneasinesses either of Body or Mind, as those were, who by vicious Living, Luxury and Extravagancies on one Hand, or by hard Labour, want of Necessaries, and mean or insufficient Diet on the other Hand, bring Distempers upon themselves by ...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722

"I had now such a Load on my Mind that it kept me perpetually waking."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722

"[T]he Truth is, he ought to have been trusted with every Thing; for no Man could deserve better of a Wife; but this was a thing I knew not how to open to him, and yet having no Body to disclose any Part of it to, the Burthen was too heavy for my Mind."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722

"[P]erhaps, said I, it may be some poor Widow like me, that had pack'd up these Goods to go and sell them for a little Bread for herself and a poor Child, and are now starving and breaking their Hearts, for want of that little they would have fetch'd, and this Thought tormented me worse th...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)