Date: 1787

"Those who were well acquainted with the world and the Court, agreed, that the heart of woman was an inexplicable abyss; and all remarked the novelty of this sentiment."

— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)

Date: 1788

"Still, however, the sense of her own incurable unhappiness, her own irretrievable unworthiness, and the disgrace of having sullied the honour of her family, and given pain to such a brother, overwhelmed her with grief and confusion; while her reason, as it at intervals returned, served only to s...

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1790

"But, the region of passion is a land of despotism, where reason exercises but a mock jurisdiction; and is continually forced to submit to an arbitrary tyrant, who, rejecting her fixed and temperate laws, is guided only by the dangerous impulse of his own violent and uncontroulable wishes."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1795

"Even there the passions reign; but they rove through the mind like murmuring, winds through barren and gloomy regions."

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1800

"My path was already chalked out, and my fancy now pursued it with uncommon pleasure."

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1800

"Every sense was an inlet of pleasure, because it was an avenue to knowledge; and my soul brooded over the world of ideas, and glowed with exultation at the grandeur and beauty of its own creations"

— Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)

Date: 1826

"[T]hen sweet Memory / May come, and with her mirror cheer thy mind, / On whose bright surface lovelier scenes shall live / Than any shrined within Italian climes."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)