Date: 1673

"The methodical Block-head that is as regular as a Clock, and as little knows why he is so, is the man cut out by Nature and Fortune for business and government."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1676

The understanding argues before the will can choose and "the last Dictate of the Judgment sways / The Will, as in a Balance, the last Weight / Put in the Scale, lifts up the other end"

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"For, though he that contemplates the Operations of his Mind, cannot but have plain and clear Ideas of them; yet unless he turn his Thoughts that way, and considers them attentively, he will no more have clear and distinct Ideas of all the Operations of his Mind, and all that may be observed ther...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"By which way one may prove any thing, and it is but supposing that all watches, whilst the balance beats, think; and it is sufficiently proved, and past doubt, that my watch thought all last night."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)