Date: 1665

"But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part, but of a despicable smallness, and very easie, and liable to be scatter'd, and blown away; yet the skilful Artificer, by a vehement Fire, brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance, Glass, by whose help we may both see our selves,...

— Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

Date: 1699

"We do plainly perceive that our Bodies are clogs to our Minds: And all the use that even the purest sort of Body in an Estate conceived to be glorified, can be of to a Mind, is to be an Instrument of local Motion, or to be a repository of Ideas for Memory and Imagination."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1699

"They infer, That besides the outward Enlightening of a Man by Knowledge, there is an inward Enlightening of the Mind, and a secret forcible conviction stampt on it."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1700, 1712

"And so our Saviour tells us, that 'whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin'; and this is the vilest and hardest Slavery in the World, because it is the Servitude of the Soul, the best and noblest part of our selves; 'tis the subjection of our Reason, which ought to rule and bear Sway over...

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: 1703

"And this is a great bondage to the mind of man, to live in ignorance of those things which are useful for us to know; to be mistaken about those matters which are of great moment and concernment to us to be rightly informed in: Ignorance is the confinement of our understandings, as Knowledge and...

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: 1703

"Wickedness and vice is the bondage of the will, which is the proper seat of liberty: and therefore there is no such slave in the world, as a man that is subject to his lusts; that is under the tyranny of strong and unruly passions, of vicious inclinations and habits."

— Tillotson, John (1630-1694)

Date: February 4, 1752

"When we are employed in reading a great and good Author, we ought to consider ourselves as searching after Treasures, which, if well and regularly laid up in the Mind, will be of use to us on sundry Occasions in our Lives."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1785

"[W]hen the mind is absent, and the thoughts are wandering to something else than what is passing in the place in which we are, we are often miserable"

— Paley, William (1743-1805)