Date: 1782

"Mine and Mrs. Sancho's thanks for your genteel present attend you, Mrs. W--, and the worthy circle round!--may every year be productive of new happiness in the fullest sense of true wisdom--the riches of the heart and mind!"

— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)

Date: 1782

"I shall fancy myself amongst you about the time you will get this--I paint in my imagination the winning smiles, and courteously kind welcome, in the face of a certain lady, whom I cannot help caring for with the decent pleasingly demure countenance of the little C-- Squire B--, with the jovial ...

— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)

Date: November 28, 1783

"Our Maker has given us this faithful internal monitor [the conscience], and if you always obey it, you will always be prepared for the end of the world, or for a more certain event, which is death."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1785

A ruined mind may be "A blank of Nature, vanish'd every thought / That Nature, Reason, that Experience taught."

— Lovibond, Edward (bap. 1723, d. 1775)

Date: 1785

"Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: w. October 27, 1777, printed 1788

"In a man's letters, you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: w. August 30, 1783, printed 1788

"I advised our Miss H--- to the same remedy, but have a notion her mind is haunted by one particular image; if so, nothing will cure her; for if the heart be broken 'tis broken like a looking-glass, and the smallest piece will for ever preserve and reflect the same figure till 'tis again ground d...

— Piozzi, [née Salusbury; other married name Thrale] Hester Lynch (1741-1821)

Date: April 5, 1781, 1788

"Cultivated ground has few weeds; a mind occupied by lawful business, has little room for useless regret."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1789

"'Tis [the letter of the law] the birdlime of reason to fasten our senses."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

Date: w. 1789, 1804

"Heav'n's pure Word would prompt Affection win, / And purge the Soul from all polluting Sin; / Till, like a faithful mirror Man would shine, / By Wisdom polish'd, and by Grace, divine."

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)