Date: 1771

"But, Sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1771

"I conjure you--however severe the conflict, gratitude shall ever be the predominant passion of my soul--oh! fly this instant."

— Stevens, George Alexander (1710?-1784)

Date: 1774

"The nymph, who in my bosom reigns, / With such full force my heart enchains, / That nothing ever can impair / The empire she possesses there."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)

Date: 1776

"Oh! jealousy, / Thou tyrant of the mind."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)

Date: 1778

"Do you think the public opinion, his various doubts of himself, and of her, the pride of his family, and the loud claims of avarice, his ruling passion 'till now, won't prove near an equipoise to his love?"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1782

"Perish the barb'rous maxims of the East, / Which basely wou'd enslave the free-born mind, / And plunder it of the best gift of Heav'n, / Its liberty!"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1784

Vanity is more a man's ruling passion than a woman's

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1785

"I was surpriz'd, taken unawares, passion ran away with me like an unbroke horse: but I have got him under now; I can govern him with a twine of thread."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1787

Money may be a ruling passion

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1789

"A passion like mine, makes the heart rebellious--it will love on--it will hope, in spite of the rules cold reason dictates"

— Inchbald [née Simpson], Elizabeth (1753-1821)