Date: 1706, 1715 [1706-1721]

"My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write."

— Anonymous

Date: 1709

"[W]ould not one believe her Charms are sufficient to conquer a thousand Hearts?"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1709

"That fatal Night the Duke felt hostile Fires in his Breast, Love was entred with all his dreadful Artillery; he took possession in a moment of the Avenues that lead to the Heart! neither did the resistance he found there serve for any thing but to make his Conquest more illustrious."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1710

Charms may be sufficient of themselves to gain a Conquest over any Heart that is not already ingaged

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1710

A bishop may indulge "amorous Vein" and make "as many Conquests over the Bodies of the fair Sex, as of their Souls"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"But why, oh! why have you given me an Interior, bearing so great a Resemblance to your own divine Purities, and not given me the Power to act accordingly; but have fix'd me in such a State, that my Actions must combat my Conscience, and my Conscience oppose my Reason, and all make a civil War in...

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1719

"I found indeed some Intervals of Reflection, and the serious Thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes, but I shook them off, and rouz'd my self from them as it were from a Distemper, and applying my self to Drinking and Company, soon master'd the Return of those Fits, for so...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

I struggled with the Power of my Imagination, reason'd myself out of it, as I believe People may always do in like Cases, if they will; and, in a Word, I conquer'd it

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I thought he was not a Monarch only, but a great Conqueror; for that he that has got a Victory over his own exorbitant Desires, and has the absolute Dominion over himself, whose Reason entirely governs his Will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a City"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"I can no longer withstand the too powerful Magick of your Eyes, nor deny any Thing that charming Tongue can ask; but now's the Time to prove your self a Heroe! subdue your self, as you have conquer'd me! be satisfied with vanquishing my Soul, fix there your Throne, but leave my Honour free!"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)