Date: 1754

"Let [my love] be evermore circumscribed by the laws of reason, of duty"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"Proceed, child, your mind is the unsullied book of nature: Turn to another Leaf"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"Sir Charles Grandison's heart is the book of heaven-- May I not study it?"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"Thus oft' disguis'd, in poverty we find / Bright genius sparkle thro' an humble mind. / What tho' no gold or diamonds gild the mine, / No glittering strata in the caverns shine; / Yet useful minerals, of various birth, /Lodge in the fruitful bowels of the earth."

— Bowden, Samuel (fl. 1733-1761)

Date: 1754

"In Her each gift of Soul and Body met; / And in pure gold the precious gem was set."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1754

"How often has that tender bosom, whose glory it would have been to melt at another's woe, and to rejoice in acts of kindness and benevolence to her fellow-creatures, been armed by herself (not the mistress, but the slave, of her passions) not with defensive, but offensive, steel!"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"How often has that tender bosom, whose glory it would have been to melt at another's woe, and to rejoice in acts of kindness and benevolence to her fellow-creatures, been armed by herself ... not with defensive, but offensive, steel"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1754

"For Damons's heart is true as steel, / And hard as flint is Phyllida's."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1754

"Mr. Locke, who has made a more exact dissection of the human mind than any man before him, declares he gained all his knowledge from consideration of himself."

— Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [née Lady Mary Pierrepont] (1689-1762)

Date: 1754

"If, for instance, a man was to sweat and labour all the days of his life to fill a chest which was already full, the absurdity of his vain endeavour would be glaring: in the same manner, when the human mind is filled and stuffed with notions, brought thither by fallacious inclinations, there is ...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)