Date: 1704

"Now I confess I am of Opinion, that the Mind is so far from being a Rasa Tabula, that it is plentifully furnished with all Ideas of Truth, which are the Seeds and Principles of all Knowledge we have, or ever shall have; that we cannot form any one true Notion, but what is founded in some ...

— Sherlock, William (1639/40-1707)

Date: 1748

"This was the true, the sole, the genuine Way of proceeding; for while carnal Desires, and such an over-weening Passion for Riches remained, their Breasts were barren Grounds, and thereby most unfit to receive the Seed of Divine Truths."

— Anonymous; [Lyttleton]

Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"The mind is but a barren soil; is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilised and enriched with foreign matter."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"It is an absurdity therefore to suppose we are born with this taste, though we are with the seeds of it, which by the heat and kindly influence of his genius, may be ripened in us."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)