Date: 1604

"How are the Soule and Body, Spirite and Flesh coupled together, what chaynes, what fetters imprison a spirituall Substance, an immortal Spirit in so base, stinking; and corruptible a carkasse?"

— Wright, Thomas (c. 1561-1623)

Date: 1641

"You may say that you occupy the citadel in your brain and there receive whatever messages are transmitted by the animal spirits which move through the nerves, and sense-perception thus occurs there, where you dwell, despite the fact that it is said to occur throughout the body."

— Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655)

Date: 1675

"Nature is too liberal to deny us our Desires: She is too Noble to refuse us a gift which she preserves for us in the Cabinet of our Soul: and her Guide is too faithful to carry us astray from that good to which we aspire."

— Le Grand, Antoine (1629-1699)

Date: 1698

"Nay, such Gentlemen would be much offended their Houses should not be clean Swept, and Garnish'd; yet, they are not, in the least, concern'd, that Cobwebs should hang in the Windows of their Intellect, and Dusty Ignorance dim and blear the Sight of the Noble Inhabitant."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"Your Bulwarks, Entrenchments and Redoubts lay so cunningly hid in your Way of Ideas, that they were altogether Invisible; so that the most quick-sighted Engineer living could not discern them, or take any sure Aim at them: Much less such a Dull Eye as mine; who, tho' I bend my Sight as strongly ...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundati...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)