Date: 1775

"In the wildest flights of fancy, it is probable that no single idea occurs to us but such as had a connection with some other impression or idea, previously existing in the mind."

— Priestley, Joseph (1733-1804)

Date: 1775

"With thee among the haunted groves / The lovely sorc'ress Fancy roves, / O let me find her here!"

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1776

"Oft let remembrance sooth his mind / With dreams of former days, / When in the lap of Peace reclined / He framed his infant lays; / When Fancy roved at large, nor Care / Nor cold Distrust alarm'd, / Nor Envy with malignant glare / His simple youth had harm'd."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1776

"A thousand disagreeable images rushed on my imagination, in that instant, I crushed their growth, and talked of India, of my other sisters, Lucy, and Mrs. Selwyn, and of you also, till we were summoned to the saloon, where supper was prepared for me."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Indeed, I fear Sir James is posting to destruction; the company he keeps must sink his mind as well as his fortune."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"The beautiful and sublime are here mingled in the superlative degree; the great Creator's works, unspoiled by art, rush on the mind, and fill it with delight and awe."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Long has the idea wandered through my mind--Long have I languished for that peaceful haven, in which this tempest-beaten bark can only anchor."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"A thousand wild vagaries now rushed into my troubled brain."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"The general objection which is made to philosophy's introduction into the regions of taste, is, that it checks and restrains the flights of the imagination, and gives that timidity which an over carefulness not to err or act contrary to reason is likely to produce."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"In the midst of the highest flights of fancy or imagination, reason ought to preside from first to last, though I admit her more powerful operation is upon reflexion."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)