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Date: c. 387 B.C.

"And so some clever fellow, a Sicilian perhaps or Italian, writing in allegory, by a slight perversion of language named this part of the soul a jar, because it can be swayed and easily persuaded, and the foolish he called the uninitiate, and that part of the soul in foolish people where the desi...

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

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Date: 360-355 B.C.

"Imagine, then, for the sake of argument, that our minds contain a block of wax, which in this or that individual may be larger or smaller, and composed of wax that is comparatively pure or muddy, and harder in some, softer in others, and sometimes of just the right consistency."

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

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Date: 360-355 B.C.

"When we are babies we must suppose this receptacle empty, and take the birds to stand for pieces of knowledge."

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

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Date: c. 10-8 BC

"quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta / percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles: / omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat" [Whatever precepts you give, be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from ...

— Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace] (65 BC - 8 BC)

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Date: 101

"But if you consider what is proper for a man, examine your store-house, see with what faculties you came into the world."

— Epictetus (c. 55-c.135)

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Date: 3rd Century

"The black color of Ethiopia, my homeland, became my lot when it was engendered by the fiery rays of the sun. But my soul, full of white blossoms, won the favor of my understanding master; for beauty is inferior to the nobility of the soul shrouded by my black body."

— Anonymous

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Date: 1273

"But for the retention and preservation of these forms, the 'phantasy' or 'imagination' is appointed; which are the same, for phantasy or imagination is as it were a storehouse of forms received through the senses."

— St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

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Date: 1273

"Furthermore, for the apprehension of intentions which are not received through the senses, the 'estimative' power is appointed: and for the preservation thereof, the 'memorative' power, which is a storehouse of such-like intentions."

— St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

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Date: 1273

"On the contrary, From its nature the memory is the treasury or storehouse of species."

— St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

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Date: c. 1400

"Minde is clepid a principal my3te, for it conteneþ in it goostly not only alle þe oþer mi3tes, þot þerto alle þo þinges in þe whiche þei worchen."

— Anonymous

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.