Date: 1691

"How the greatest part on't is an arrant cheat, and a mischievous one besides,--how little a while we generally stay in't, and yet how unfit to go out on't;--all these Reflections are now so strongly imprinted on my mind, that indeed I wonder how I could be perswaded to come abroad into Light."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"She was the paragon of Perfection, and Loadstar of all Eyes and Hearts; and well might my Dear Father Travel seven years after her Death, before he Marryed agen, for had he don't, not seven, nor seventeen, nor seventy, but seven hundred, he'd ne're have lit upon such another."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Why just then, all of a sudden, before I cou'd say what's this, or knew where I was, my Noddle now swimming with a million of Fancies, (as I alwayes had a very working Brain,) and I not minding my way, in tumbled I into the River, hugging the waves so tenderly, you can't imagine."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"For as I was expatiating in Dungrove Fields, my Mind and Body rambling alike, neither cared or knew whether, I out of a Childish wantonness gathered a bearded Ear of Grass or Corn, and put it into my Throat, thrusting it down so far, that when I went to pull it up again, being against the grain,...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"This however I care not if I tell you--that the very hopes of Rambling, the Prospect of seeing a new Part of the World, or indeed a New World to me, striking upon the strings of my Soul, before wound to the same pitch, made most charming Musick, and had you seen then the young Evander--who now h...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"But while I was admiring their Skill and Harmony, I was so ravish'd with their Charming Musick; that cou'd you believe it, That I fell stark asleep under the Tree, and my Mind being full of the Idea's which were in my Head, e're I fell asleep, they seem'd still to continue their Discourse, which...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"So innocent is the Soul of Kainophilus, so like fair white Paper, wherein you may presently see the least blot or speck of dirt that happens to fall upon it."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Here cou'd I easily step over, with the Feet of my Fancy (wider then ten thousand Colossus's, though one of them be big enough for a Ship to Sail between its Legs) to all the Spires in London."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"My Body is no better than the Legs, and Arms, or rather Crutches of my Soul--Why shou'd it be a Crime to throw those Crutches away and go alone, especially when they are troublesom or rotten?"

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Can it be a Fault to chuse a better for a worse, and don't all the thinking World agree that this state we are now in, is but a Slavery to sence, a bondage to dull matter, which tedders us down like our Brother Brutes, where we are not only exposed to want and misery, but to all the Insults and ...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)