Date: 1736

"Ah! Princess, answered he, with a Sigh, you judge too favourably of this degenerate Race; their very Souls are debilitated with their Bodies; all Ardor for Glory, all generous Emulation, all Love of Liberty, every noble Passion is extinguish'd with their Industry."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1736

"But, as a Child, in Thought, chews o'er / The Sweetmeats, which he eat before; / So in his Mind Alexis keeps / The dear Impression of her Lips:"

— Duck, Stephen (1705-1756)

Date: 1737 (also 1738, 1743, reprinted 1754)

"Curst with such souls of base alloy, / As can possess, but not enjoy, / Debarr'd the pleasure to impart / By av'rice, sphincter of the heart, / Who wealth, hard earn'd by guilty cares, / Bequeath untouch'd to thankless heirs."

— Green, Matthew (1696-1737)

Date: 1737

"That man makes a mean figure in the eye of reason, who is measuring syllables and coupling rhimes, when he should be mending his own soul and securing his own immortality."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737

"Talk what you will of Taste, my Friend, you'll find, / Two of a Face, as soon as of a Mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Our Passions are like Convulsion-Fits, which, although they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Superstition is the Spleen of the Soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Wit in Conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of Expression, or (in the Midwives Phrase) a quick Conception and an easie Delivery."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737

"You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1739-40

"The understanding, like the eye (says Mr. Locke), whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)