Date: 1719

"I thought he was not a Monarch only, but a great Conqueror; for that he that has got a Victory over his own exorbitant Desires, and has the absolute Dominion over himself, whose Reason entirely governs his Will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a City"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: First performed February 17, 1720.

"What were Dominion, Pomp, / The Wealth of Nations, nay of all the World, / The World it self, or what a thousand Worlds, / If weigh'd with Faith unspotted, heav'nly Truth, / Thoughts free from Guilt, the Empire of the Mind, / And all the Triumphs of a God-like Breast / Firm and unmov'd in the gr...

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1720

"The prodigious stupid Bigottry of the People also was irksome to me; I thought there was something in it very sordid, the entire Empire the Priests have over both the Souls and Bodies of the People, gave me a Specimen of that Meanness of Spirit which is no where else to be seen but in Italy, esp...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1720

"Well, I know that too, William, said I; but the Captain is a Man will be ruled by Reason; what have you to say to it?."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722

"There is nothing so absurd, so surfeiting, so ridiculous as a Man heated by Wine in his Head, and a wicked Gust in his Inclination together; he is in the possession of two Devils at once, and can no more govern himself by his Reason than a Mill can Grind without Water."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1722, 1723

"For Jesus sake, remove not my Distress, / Till free Triumphant Grace shall Reposess / The Vacant Throne; from whence my Sins Depart, / And make a willing Captive of my Heart."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1724

"It is for this Reason, that I have so largely set down the Particulars of the Caresses I was treated with by the Jeweller, and also by this Prince; not to make the Story an Incentive to the Vice, which I am now such a sorrowful Penitent for being guilty of, God forbid any shou'd make so vile a U...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: June 22, 1731

"But Heaven, who knows our Frame, and graciously distinguishes between Frailty and Presumption, will make a Difference, tho' Man cannot, who sees not the Heart, but only judges by the outward Action."

— Lillo, George (1691/3-1739)

Date: 1734

"Nature feels / A strange commotion to her inmost centre; / The throne of reason shakes"

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1734

"This flesh, this circling blood, these brutal powers, / Made to obey, turn rebels to the mind, / Nor hear its laws"

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)