Date: 1706

"Every one declares against blindness, and yet who almost is not fond of that which dims his sight, and keeps the clear light out of his mind, which should lead him into truth and knowledge?"

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1706

In the association of ideas "unnatural connections become by custom as natural to the mind, as sun and light"

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1706 [first published 1658]

"To Dazzle, to hurt the Sight, with too muc Light, to surprize the Mind; to tempt, to decoy, to beguile."

— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)

Date: 1706 [first published 1658]

"Luciferous, that brings Light: as Luciferous Experiments, a Term us'd by Naturlaists, for such Experiments as serve to inform and inlighten the Mind, about some Truth of Speculation in Physick or Philosophy."

— Phillips, Edward (1630-1696)

Date: 1706

"Let us make a Trial, Whether they that have been Scorched and Blacken'd by the Sun of Africa, may not come to have their Minds Healed by the more Benign Beams of the Sun of Righteousness."

— Mather, Cotton (1663-1728)

Date: March 16, 1696/7; 1708

"I fansy I pretty well guess what it is that some Men find mischievous in your 'Essay': 'Tis opening the Eyes of the Ignorant, and rectifying the Methods of Reasoning, which perhaps may undermine some received Errors, and so abridge the Empire of Darkness; wherein, though the Subject wander deplo...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: April 26, 1695; 1708

"Meditating by one's self is like digging in the Mine; it often, perhaps, brings up maiden Earth, which never came near the Light before; but whether it contain any Metal in it, is never so well tried as in Conversation with a knowing judicious Friend, who carries about him the true Touch-stone, ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: December 20, 1692; 1708

"As for his General Theory of them, I esteem it, as all others of this kind, a sort of mere waking Dream, that Men are strangely apt to fall into, when they think long of a Subject, beginning quite at the wrong End; for by framing such Conceits in their Fancies, they vainly think to give their Un...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: 1709, 1714

"They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light."

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

Date: From Thursd. April 6. to Saturd. April 8. 1710

"It [the light of Elysium] pierces the thickest Bodies, in the same Manner as the Sun Beams pass through Chrystal: It strengthens the Sight instead of dazzling it; and nourishes in the most inward Recesses of the Mind, a perpetual Serenity that is not to be express'd."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)