Date: c. 501 B.C.

"Poor witnesses for people are eyes and ears if they possess barbarian souls."

— Heraklitus (fl. 504-1 BCE)

Date: 1704

"Present peace and satisfaction of mind, and unexpressible joy and pleasure flowing from the testimony of a good conscience."

— Tillotson, John (1630–1694)

Date: 1711

Popes, "Who, as erroneus, Nature's Light asperse; / The Judgment, which our Senses pass, reverse; / And by th' usurp'd Authority of Heav'n / Repeal the just Decrees by Reason given: / Who Schemes of new Religion have enjoined, / Impos'd Belief, enslav'd the free-born Mind, / And artful by the man...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: January 1739; November 1740

"And indeed were they content with lamenting that ignorance, which we still lie under in the most important questions that can come before the tribunal of human reason, there are few, who have an acquaintance with the sciences, that would not readily agree with them."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: December 1790

"A few fundamental truths meet the first enquiry of reason, and appear as clear to an unwarped mind, as that air and bread are necessary to enable the body to fulfil its vital functions; but the opinions which men discuss with so much heat must be simplified and brought back to first principles; ...

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)