Date: 1543

Reason is like a beam of light.

— Vives, Juan Luis (1492-1540)

Date: 1543

Reason is like a stream deriving from the source of God.

— Vives, Juan Luis (1492-1540)

Date: 1580

The Pyrrhonist's mind "is a white sheet prepared to take from the finger of God what form soever it shall please him to imprint therein."

— Montaigne, Michel Eyquem seigneur de (1533-1592)

Date: 1588

"Men do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest and keeps incessantly whirling arounnd building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like our silkworms, and is suffocated in it."

— Montaigne, Michel Eyquem seigneur de (1533-1592)

Date: 1601

The human mind is 'un degout de l'immortelle substance"

— Charron, Pierre (1541-1603)