Date: December 1790

"A few fundamental truths meet the first enquiry of reason, and appear as clear to an unwarped mind, as that air and bread are necessary to enable the body to fulfil its vital functions; but the opinions which men discuss with so much heat must be simplified and brought back to first principles; ...

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: December 1790

"Man has been termed, with strict propriety, a microcosm, a little world in himself."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1791

"If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."

— West, Jane (1758-1852)

Date: 1791

Gods are "swift as the traveller's thought"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

"But when the Gods with evils unforeseen / Smite him, he bears them with a grudging mind; / For such as the complexion of his lot / By the appointment of the Sire of all, Such is the colour of the mind of man."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

The mind may be haunted by a thought

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

A thought may occupy and haunt the mind

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

"Speak, can the ghost of Conscience haunt thy mind?"

— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)

Date: 1791, 1806

To Shakespeare's illumined sight was consigned "The rugged cavern of the Murd'rer's breast"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)