Date: 1604
"For, as the Ratte running behinde a paynted cloth, betrayeth her selfe; even so, a Passion lurking in the heart, by thoughts and speech discovereth it selfe, according to the common Proverbe, ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, from the aboundance of heart, the tongue speaketh: for as a Riv...
preview | full record— Wright, Thomas (c. 1561-1623)
Date: 1607
"If the happie Daemon of Vlisses direct not the wandering planet of my witte within the decent orbe of wisedome, my stammering pen seeming far ouergon with superfluitie of phrase, yet wanting matter I answer with the poet one only word inuerted."
preview | full record— Walkington, Thomas (b. c. 1575, d. 1621)
Date: 1620
"For when we try to recollect or call a thing to mind, if we have no prenotion or perception of what we are seeking, we seek and toil and wander here and there, as if in infinite space."
preview | full record— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)
Date: 1641
"But I see what it is: my mind enjoys wandering off and will not yet submit to being restrained within the bounds of truth. Very well then; just this once let us give it a completely free rein, so that after a while, when it is time to tighten the reins, it may more readily submit to being curbed."
preview | full record— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Date: 1651, 1668
"And on the contrary, metaphors, and senseless and ambiguous words, are like ignes fatui; and reasoning upon them is wandering amongst innumerable absurdities; and their end, contention and sedition, or contempt."
preview | full record— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)
Date: 1657
Fancy is "The roving, pregnant, busie, teeming sence."
preview | full record— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)
Date: 1657
The fancy is a "Boundlesse, restlesse faculty, free from all engagements, diggs without spade, sails without Ships, Flies without wings, builds without charges, fights without bloodshed, in a moment striding from the Center to the circumference of the world, by a kind of omnipotency creating and ...
preview | full record— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)