Date: 1693

"Why is Love then (said the Count) so irreconcilable an Enemy to Reason, that it can never cohabit with it?"

— Anonymous

Date: 1693

"Though you may imagine she had no mean ones of her own, since (being but a private Gentlewoman) she could by their help alone make so sudden a Conquest over the Heart of a Prince, who had certainly (in so many Courts as he had been in) seen very agreeable Faces, set off with the additional Splen...

— Anonymous

Date: 1693

"O Love, thou most dangerous Distemper of the Soul! most dangerous because we do not perceive Thee, till Thou art too far gone to be cured: Thou subtle Enemy! who takest the strongest Hearts, because Thou always usest Surprise; and undermining our Reason, never appearest in the light, till Thou a...

— Anonymous

Date: 1696

"Is your heart made of that impenetrable Mould, that Sighs and Prayers are vain Batteries; or doth some hidden happy Youth rob me of my desir'd Prize? She blusht at that, and he observ'd it."

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: 1696

"'Twas not with ease the Usurper got Possession here (went she on; pointing to her Heart) nor will he be with ease dislodg'd. All the Sighs and Tears it cost Emilius to gain this Virgin Heart, to bind it in the Inchanting Chains of Tyrannick Love; I must, with Interest, pay back, e'er I can set t...

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: May 10, 1704

"But when a man's fancy gets astride his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors; the first proselyte he makes is himself, and when that is once compassed the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others,...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1705

"All the World knows it is an Heroick Action not to be transported by our Passions; and tho' they may chance to assault our Wills, yet that Judgment that governs 'em will make us relish our Reasons"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1705

"This Virtue is a Gift of Piety, a Sweetness of Spirit; for Clemency is of an Heroick Essence; and the Defection of that Active and Unbridled Passion, which oppugns it, and seems to check it, is the most Wonderful Effect, that they who exercise this Virtue, are able to produce, and the Victory go...

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1705

"Guilt is never without a Character, we may Read it in the Criminals Faces; it will appear in their very Eyes, and express that the Contempt of Virtue hath caused an Insurrection of the Passions."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1705

"At last, being assaulted by Turns, on the one Side by Reason, and the other by Interest and Passion, she got up early in the Morning, without having been able to take any other Resolution, than to yield her self up, if possible, to be govern'd by Volpone, and be for the future meerly Passive in ...

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)