Date: 1710

"But now, my Lord, I am coming to the melancholly Part of fair Agnes's Description, her Mind, 'twas all a Blot, nor had it ever been otherways; she had no Notion of Things, no Discourse, no Memory."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1719

"I found it was not so easy to imprint right Notions in his Mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1720

"[L]et me imprint upon thy Mind, these my last Words that perhaps thou may'st ever hear from thy affectionate Father: "

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1722, 1723

The "Laws of Honour" may be "printed by the Laws of Nature in the Breast of a Soldier, or a Man of Honour"

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"Here too is Paper; but it is as spotless as your Mind"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

Children are at a time in their life "when, like Wax, their tender Minds may be moulded into what Shape they please"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"I can write my whole Mind to you, tho' I cannot, from the most deplorable Infelicity, receive from you the wish'd for Favour of a few Lines in Return, written with the same Unreservedness."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747

"Now the Purpose for which [Lestrange] principally intended his Book, as in his Preface he spends a great many Words to inform us, was for the Use and Instruction of Children; who being, as it were, a mere rasa tabula, or blank Paper, are ready indifferently for any Opinion, good or bad, taking a...

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"What sort of Children therefore are the Blank Paper, upon which such Morality as this ought to be written?"

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"Let the Children of Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of the Popish Countries, furnish him with Blank Paper for Principles, of which free-born Britons are not capable."

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop