Date: 1790, 1794, 1795, 1818, 1827

"The cistern contains: the fountain overflows / One thought, fills immensity."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1790, 1794, 1795, 1818, 1827

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1791

The mind may be milky

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

One may have a "milky mind"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1791

One may bear a "milky mind"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1792

"As when in ocean sinks the orb of day, / Long on the wave reflected lustres play; / Thy tempered gleams of happiness resigned / Glance on the darkened mirror of the mind."

— Rogers, Samuel (1763-1855)

Date: February 1792

"It appears as if the tide of mental faculties flowed as far as it could in certain channels, and then forsook its course, and arose in others. How irrational then is the hereditary system, which establishes channels of power, in company with which wisdom refuses to flow!"

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

Date: 1792

"In this pause of intellect; this deliquium of the soul, an enthusiastic sensation of pleasure overspreads it, previous to any examination by the rules of art."

— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)

Date: 1792

"The leading ideas must be fixed on the spot: if left to the memory, they soon evaporate."

— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)

Date: 1793

"The most palpable of all classes of knowledge is that I am, personally considered, but an atom in the ocean of mind."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)