Date: 1745

"Drink early then, my Friend, at Reason's Bowl, / And fill with wholesome Draughts thy youthful Soul. / If Wine or Gall the Recent Vessel stains, / Each Scent alike the faithful Cask retains."

— Whaley, John (bap. 1710, d. 1745)

Date: 1752

Pleasure is "the secret Spring that actuates man"

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [pseud.]

Date: 1755

"So that our author did not enter the lists against the memory of the real substantial chivalry, which he held in veneration; but, with design to expel an hideous phantome that possessed the brains of the people, waging perpetual war with true genius and invention."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1755

"I revised my comedies, together with some interludes which had lain some time in a corner, and I did not think them so wretched, but that they might appeal from the muddy brain of this player, to the clearer perception of other actors less scrupulous and more judicious."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1755

"In this manner did he invent names for a great many knights in either army, to all of whom also he gave arms, colours, mottos and devices, without the least hesitation, being incredibly inspired by the fumes of a distempered fancy"

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1757-9

"But Virtue Minds of nobler Stamp invites / To her sincere and more refin'd Delights."

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [Editor]

Date: 1757-9

"In harden'd Oak his Heart did hide, / And Ribs of Iron arm'd his Side!"

— Duncombe, John (1729-1786) [Editor]

Date: 1759

Woes may haunt the mind (but the Gods may give "cruel Phantoms to the Wind"

— Grainger, James (1721-1766)

Date: 1761

The mind of the hearer might very well be a tabula rasa, free from every prejudice, and like soft wax, susceptible of every impression; and with all this, not yield to truth itself, proposed in the manner it is every day proposed, under the appearance of falsehood."

— Batteaux, Charles (1713-1780)

Date: 1761

"Your image in my mind is the only object of my passionate adoration."

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778); Kenrick, William (1729/30-1779)