Date: 1755

"[I]n short, it is very well attested, that he had one mistress, whom he inthroned, as sovereign of his heart, and to whom he recommended himself with great caution and privacy, because he piqued himself upon being a secret knight."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1762

"I'm speaking of thy mind alone; / Where keen reproaches all resort, / Where biting scandal holds her court; / From whence she throws her pois'nous dart / At ev'ry unprovoking heart."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1767

"Man in this world, Sir, may be compared to a hackney-coach upon a stand; continually subject to be drawn by his unruly appetites, on one foolish jaunt or another; but you will say, if his appetites are horses, which as it were drag him along, reason is the coachman to rule those horses--But, Sir...

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1777

"For since, my Lord, at Reason's awful bar / You plac'd Devonia's Duchess, 'mid the war / Of jarring tongues; since Satire's two-edg'd sword, / That smites alike the Peasant and the Lord, / By Genius whetted, threats its angry blow; / --I tremble at the vengeance of the Foe-- / While my starv'd M...

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)

Date: 1790

"Her sickly mind / Was ill at ease, though seated on the throne / of affluence and plenty."

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)

Date: 1798

"Women have a frame of body more delicate and susceptible of impression than men, and, in proportion as they receive a less intellectual education, are more unreservedly under the empire of feeling."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1798

"Wounded affection, wounded pride, all those principles which hold absolute empire in the purest and loftiest minds, urged her to still further experiments to recover her influence, and to a still more poignant desparation, long after reason would have directed her to desist, and resolutely call ...

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1798

"But a connection more memorable originated about this time, between Mary and a person of her own sex, for whom she contracted a friendship so fervent, as for years to have constituted the ruling passion of her mind."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1798

The heart of another may be one's judge

— Porter, Stephen (1781-1868); Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1801

Virtue may be a man's "eternal flame" or "ruling passion"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)