Date: 1684

"Since Harmony, like Fire to VVax, does fit / The softned Heart Impressions to admit."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1686

"But the false Image she will ne're erace, / Though far unworthy still to hold its place: / So hard it is, even Wiser grown, to take / Th' Impression out, which Fancy once did make."

— Killigrew, Anne (1660-1685)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"'Tis so many times in the capacities of Youth: they who can receive any impression like the Virgin-wax, will as easily suffer a defacement unless it be hardned and matur'd by Time: whereas others who are hard to be wrought upon like Steel, retain the Images which are Engraven on them with much m...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1687

"Their thoughts or words can leave no mark behind; / Thy self dost make th' impression on thy mind."

— Rawlet, John (bap. 1642, d. 1686)

Date: 1688

"There are a thousand things to be said of the Advantages this generous Passion brings to those, whose Hearts are capable of receiving its soft Impressions."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1689, 1716

Honor is "The richest Treasure of a generous Breast, / 'That gives the Stamp and Standard to the rest."

— Montagu, Charles, 1st Earl of Halifax (1661-1715)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Hence naturally flows the great variety of Opinions, concerning Moral Rules, which are to be found amongst Men, according to the different sorts of Happiness, they have a Prospect of, or propose to themselves: Which could not be, if practical Principles were innate, and imprinted in our Minds im...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Characters drawn on Dust, that the first breath of wind effaces; or Impressions made on a heap of Atoms, or animal Spirits, are altogether as useful, and render the Subject as noble, as the Thoughts of a Soul that perish in thinking; that once out of sight, are gone for ever, and leave no memory...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)