Date: 1576

"Then the bookes of conscience shall be opened. Then shall the dead be judged by those thinges which are written in the booke: for theyr works do folow them."

— Gascoigne, George (1534/5- - 1577)

Date: 1577

"The comparisons of, Ynke, and of the spirit: of stones, and of the hart, are of great force. For he expresseth more when he compareth ynke with the spirit of God, adn stones with the harte, than if he had named the spirit and the harte without comparison."

— Calvin, John (1509-1564); Timme, Thomas (fl. 1577)

Date: 1580

The Pyrrhonist's mind "is a white sheet prepared to take from the finger of God what form soever it shall please him to imprint therein."

— Montaigne, Michel Eyquem seigneur de (1533-1592)

Date: 1581

"And for that the minde in infantes is like a payre of tables, wherein nothing is written, and like & tender twig which may be bowed euery way, it is cleare, that vertue or vice may easily be planted in it."

— Guazzo, Stefano (1530-1593); Pettie, George, trans. (1548-1589)

Date: 1586, 1589

"The law of nature is sence and feeling, which everie one hath in himself, and in his conscience, whereby he discerneth between good and evil, as much as sufficeth to take from him the cloke of ignorance, in that he is reprooved even by his owne witnes."

— La Primaudaye, Pierre de (b. ca. 1545); Thomas Bowes (fl. 1586)

Date: 1586, 1589

"The minde is as a white paper, wherein as a man groweth in age and judgement, he writeth his cogitations and thoughts, which the studie of letters and learning do affoord him."

— La Primaudaye, Pierre de (b. ca. 1545); Thomas Bowes (fl. 1586)

Date: 1590?, 1623

"Read over Julia's heart, thy first, best love."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1590?, 1623

"Gentle girl, assist me, / And e'en in kind love I do conjure thee, / Who art the table wherein all my thoughts / Are visibly charactered and engraved / To lesson me, and tell me some good mean / How with my honour I may undertake / A journey to my loving Proteus."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594

"The soul of man being therefore at the first as a book, wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted; we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto perfection of knowledge."

— Hooker, Richard (1554-1600)

Date: 1596

"In this respect [conscience] may fitly be compared to a notarie, or a register that hath alwaies the penne in his hand, to note and record whatsoeuer is saide or done: who also because he keepes the rolles and records of the court, can tell what hath bin said and done many hundred yeares past."

— Perkins, William (1558-1602)