Date: 1776

"The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who have made such a great progress in the sciences, were not actuated by supernatural causes, or any innate principles in their original formation; the mind is a mere blank, but capable of receiving such impressions as custom, education, or any other relative c...

— Gwynn, John (bap. 1713, d. 1786)

Date: 1776

"We all help to engrave our misfortunes on our hearts, by bearing them constantly in mind, and recurring back to them daily, as if we were incapable of turning our thoughts to any other subject."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"No words will ever be able to express my feelings, nor no time to erase them from my heart."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"She has not yet recovered the vivacity she possessed before her attachment to Captain Williams; but time, they say, can conquer every thing, and will, I trust, erase the memory of that disagreeable event from her mind."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"I needed not to read it, the words were but too deeply engraved upon my heart."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1777, 1778

"The mind of youth is a kind of tabula rasa;--at first unstained with guilt, and unadorned with virtue."

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1777, 1778

"May the fair page never be polluted!--may it become inscribed with every excellent virtue--and be thereby rendered comely in the sight of Men, of Angels, of the Deity!"

— Rack, Edmund (1735-1787)

Date: 1767, 1778

A "sacred legacy with time shall last" and "On thankful hearts engrav'd, what thou hast done"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

Date: 1778, 1779

"I cannot write the scene that followed, though every word is engraven on my heart."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Yes, my child, thy happiness is engraved, in golden characters, upon the tablets of my heart! and their impression is indelible; for, should the rude and deep-searching hand of Misfortune attempt to pluck them from their repository, the fleeting fabric of life would give way, and in tearing from...

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)