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: 1770

The master-passion may be concealed "but on great occasions,... It will break forth, and loudly tell the world / What fermentation often works the soul"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1770

"This Night we'd fix her [the Muse of Comedy's] Empire in your Hearts."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1770, 1806

"Nor pride nor fickleness could claim / The empire of his mind."

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: w. prior to April 1770; 1785, 1837, 1875

"The groves of Kew, however misapplied / To serve the purposes of lust and pride, / Were, by the greater monarch's care, designed / A place of conversation for the mind; / Where solitude and silence should remain, / And conscience keep her sessions and arraign."

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1770

Powerful charms may extend "their empire over the heart"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1770

"Reason and Nature are the judges here."

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

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)