Date: 1766

"In 'love', it is the heart, which, principally, tastes the pleasure; the mind, making itself a slave, without any regard; and, the satisfaction of the senses, contributing less to the sweet enjoyment, than a certain contentedness of soul, which produces the charming idea, of being in the posses...

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

Date: 1766, 1808

"Nature, my friend, profuse in vain, / May every gift impart; / If unimprov'd, they ne'er can gain / An empire o'er the heart."

— Anstey, Christopher (1724-1805)

Date: 1767, 1784

"But if foul Passion, or distemper'd Pride, / Impede its search, or Phrenzy seize the brain, / Then Ignorance a gloomy darkness spreads, / Or Superstition, with mishapen forms, / Erects its savage empire in the mind."

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)

Date: 1767, 1784

"This principle / In female minds a feebler empire holds, / Opposing less the specious arguments / For milder rule, and freedom's popular theme."

— Jago, Richard (1715-1781)

Date: 1769

"Do you think it possible, Lucy, for a Frenchwoman to love? is not vanity the ruling passion of their hearts?"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

We may blush at past follies and indiscretions "when the empire of reason begins"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

"For my part, I think no politics worth attending to but those of the little commonwealth of woman: if I can maintain my empire over hearts, I leave the men to quarrel for every thing else."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

"My voyage ought undoubtedly to be considered as an abdication: I am to all intents and purposes dead in law as a lover; and the lady has a right to consider her heart as vacant, and to proceed to a new election."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

Savages may regard "the Christian system of marriage as contrary to the laws of nature and reason"

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1774

"I expect the incomparable fair one of Hamburg, that prodigy of beauty, and paragon of good sense, who has enslaved your mind, and inflamed your heart."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)