Date: 1754

"You will be greater than Clementina, and that is greater than the greatest, if you can conquer a passion, that over-turned her reason"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"But I could no longer divert myself by Proteus-like putting on that character which best suited my fancy; for I was now chain'd down and enslaved to the most rigid of all tyrants, an uncontroulable passion."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"The human mind, and every part of intelligent nature, is exempt from these laws [of the physical world], and hath the power of cherishing one seed and stifling another"

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

There is "narrow-hearted race of men, who live only for the gratification of their own lawless appetites, and consider all the rest of the world as made for themselves"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"My brother, tho' in the main, above singularity, will, nevertheless, in things he thinks right, be govern'd by his own rules, which are the laws of reason and convenience."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"Let [my love] be evermore circumscribed by the laws of reason, of duty"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"How often has that tender bosom, whose glory it would have been to melt at another's woe, and to rejoice in acts of kindness and benevolence to her fellow-creatures, been armed by herself (not the mistress, but the slave, of her passions) not with defensive, but offensive, steel!"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: Saturday, Aug. 3, 1754; 1756

"It is justly remarked by Horace, that what is conveyed to our Notice through our Ears, acts with a more feeble Impulse upon the Mind, than Objects that pass through the Organs of Sight, those faithful Evidences in a mental Court of Judicature."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: 1754

The "grim natives" of East-Brent were of "reason wholly void, whom instinct rules"

— Bowden, Samuel (fl. 1733-1761)

Date: 1754, 1793

"Let Logic's sons, mechanic throng, / Their syllogistic war prolong, / And reason's empire boast."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)