Date: 1710, 1714

"For it is well known we are not many of us like that Roman who wished for windows to his breast that all might be as conspicuous there as in his house, which, for that reason, he had built as open as was possible."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"Thus I contend with Fancy and Opinion; and search the Mint and Foundery of Imagination. For here the Appetites and Desires are fabricated. Hence they derive their Privilege and Currency. If I can stop the Mischief here, and prevent false Coinage; I am safe."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1710, 1714

"In reality, has not every Fancy a like Privilege of passing; if any single one be admitted upon its own Authority? And what must be the Issue of such an Oeconomy, if the whole fantastick Crew be introduc'd, and the Door refus'd to none?"

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1722

"Furnish'd with nothing but a faithless Breast, / Where only filthy Lusts and Passions dwell, Like Dirt and Cobwebs in a Hermet's Cell."

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1763

"Try, thou State-Juggler, ev'ry paltry art, / Ransack the inmost closet of my heart / Swear Thou'rt my Friend; by that base oath make way / Into my breast, and flatter to betray."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1781

"But now, farewell, ye flow'ry Cells, / Where bright Imagination dwells, / Round whom in Circles ever gay / The young Ideas love to play"

— Keate, George (1729-1797)

Date: 1781

"Oh, I begin to take you--your days--the rusticated remains of a ruined Temple Critic--a smatterer of high life from the scenes of Cibber, which remain upon his imagination, as they do upon the stage, forty years after the real characters are lost"

— Burgoyne, John (1722-1792)

Date: 1784

"But, for the furniture within, / Whether it be of brains, or lead, / What matters it, so there's a head?"

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)

Date: 1784

"Nor is it thinking much, but doing, / That keeps our tenements from ruin"

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)

Date: 1798

"I believe it may be admitted as a maxim, that no person of a well furnished mind, that has shaken off the implicit subjection of youth, and is not the zealous partizan of a sect, can bring himself to conform to the public and regular routine of sermons and prayers."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)