Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit is a Standing-Army Government, / And Sense a sullen stubborn P---t."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1714, 1735

" What cruel Dæmon haunts my tortur'd Mind? / Sure, if 'twere Love, I shou'd th'Invader find;"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

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

I struggled with the Power of my Imagination, reason'd myself out of it, as I believe People may always do in like Cases, if they will; and, in a Word, I conquer'd it

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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: 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: 1733

"Let Vice and guilt act how they please / In souls their conquer'd provinces;"

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737) [pseud. Peter Drake, a Fisherman of Brentford]

Date: 1733

"Virtue's exempt from quartering fears. / Shall then arm'd phancies fiercely drest / Live at discretion in your breast?"

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737) [pseud. Peter Drake, a Fisherman of Brentford]

Date: 1735

"'Twere endless to describe the various Darts, / With which the Fair are arm'd to conquer Heart"

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1737 (also 1738, 1743, reprinted 1754)

"But, if dull fogs invade the head, / That mem'ry minds not what is read."

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737)