Date: 1724

"[S]o with my Eyes open, and with my Conscience, as I may say, awake, I sinn'd, knowing it to be a Sin, but having no Power to resist; when this had thus made a Hole in my Heart, and I was come to such a height, as to transgress against the Light of my own Conscience, I was then fit for any Wicke...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1724

"So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in Wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by Conscience; and that Centinel once doz'd, sleeps fast, not to be awaken'd while the Tide of Pleasure continues to flow, or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1724

"Vanity is a lurking subtile Thief, that works itself insensibly into our Bosoms, and while we declare our dislike to it, know not 'tis so near us; every body being (as a witty Gentleman has somewhere said) provided with a Racket to strike it from themselves."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1735

"Imagination, Fancy, and Invention, they are wholly Strangers to, nor have any Words in their Language by which those Ideas can be expressed; the whole Compass of their Thoughts and Mind, being shut up within the two forementioned Sciences"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

Pamela talks to her heart which is a "busy Fool" and a "busy Simpleton"

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

Date: 1741 [1740]; continued in 1741

"While an harden'd Mind, that never doubts itself, must be a Stranger to its own Infirmities"

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

Date: 1741

In the mind's great forest wander syllogisms: "Universal propositions are persons of quality; and therefore in logic they are said to be of the first figure. Singular propositions are private persons, and therefore placed in the third or last figure, or rank."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744); Arbuthnot, John (bap. 1677, d. 1735)

Date: 1742

"But what hurt her most was, that in reality she had not so entirely conquered her Passion; the little God lay lurking in her Heart, tho' Anger and Disdain so hoodwinked her, that she could not see him"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"My Mind was like a City up in Arms, all Confusion; and every new Thought was a fresh Disturber of my Peace."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"[T]here are Weaknesses in vulgar Life, which are commonly [Page 160] called Tenderness; to which great Minds are so entirely Strangers, that they have not even an Idea of them"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)