Date: 1785

"Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to the original."

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)

Date: 1786

"Her pencil sickening Fancy throws away, / And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Worlds would I give now for that sketch of my Quintin, that my cruel brother deprived me of; but his dear image is engraven on my heart"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1788

"The same turn of mind which leads me to adore the Author of all Perfection--which leads me to conclude that he only can fill my soul; forces me to admire the faint image--the shadows of his attributes here below; and my imagination gives still bolder strokes to them."

— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

Date: 1788

"Emmeline, at the picture her imagination drew of their united powers of desolation, shuddered involuntarily and sighed."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Frequently, your coldness, your unkindness, gives me again to despondence and every lovely prospect I had suffered my imagination to draw is lost in clouds and darkness.'

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Thee Queen of Shadows! [Fancy]--shall I still invoke, / Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew, / When on mine eyes the early radiance broke / Which shew'd the beauteous, rather than the true!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Ah! hide for ever from my sight / The faithless flatterer Hope--whose pencil, gay, / Portrays some vision of delight, / Then bids the fairy tablet fade away; / While in dire contrast, to mine eyes / Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise, / And Memory draws, from Pleasure's wither'd flower, / Corr...

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1790

"She seemed to have entered upon a new state of existence;--those fine springs of affection which had hitherto lain concealed, were now touched, and yielded to her a happiness more exalted than any her imagination ever painted."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1790

"But they were happy, for they knew not enough of the world seriously to regret the want of its enjoyments, though Julia would sometimes sigh for the airy image which her fancies painted, and a painful curiosity would arise concerning the busy scenes from which she was excluded."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)