Date: 1697

"Many fleeting Thoughts pass through the Soul without Observation, and leave no Trace or Idea behind them"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Date: 1697

"As when you make Cogitation in us to be like Motion in Matter, which receives its Motion from external Impression"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Date: 1697

"Upon your Supposition That all our Thoughts perish in sound Sleep, and all Cogitation is extinct, we seem to have a new Soul every Morning."

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Date: 1698

"Nay, such Gentlemen would be much offended their Houses should not be clean Swept, and Garnish'd; yet, they are not, in the least, concern'd, that Cobwebs should hang in the Windows of their Intellect, and Dusty Ignorance dim and blear the Sight of the Noble Inhabitant."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundati...

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1708, 1714

"The Human Mind and Body are both of 'em naturally subject to Commotions: and as there are strange Ferments in the Blood, which in many Bodys occasion an extraordinary discharge; so in Reason too, there are heterogeneous Particles which must be thrown off by Fermentation."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1708, 1714

"They are certainly as ill Physicians in the Body-Politick, who wou'd needs be tampering with these mental Eruptions; and under the specious pretence of healing this Itch of Superstition, and saving Souls from the Contagion of Enthusiasm, shou'd set all Nature in an uproar, and turn a few innocen...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1708, 1714

"For the Bodys of the Prophets, in their State of Prophecy, being not in their own power, but (as they say themselves) mere passive Organs, actuated by an exterior Force, have nothing natural, or resembling real Life, in any of their Sounds or Motions: so that how aukardly soever a Puppet-Shew ma...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1708, 1714

"For otherwise, the Pannick may have been caught; the Evidence of the Senses lost, as in a Dream; and the Imagination so inflam'd, as in a moment to have burnt up every Particle of Judgment and Reason. The combustible Matters lie prepar'd within, and ready to take fire at a Spark; but chiefly in ...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: April 6, 1698; 1708

"I hop'd therefore, as I said, to have seen you, and unravel'd to you that which lying in the Lump unexplicated in my Mind, I scarce yet know what it is my self; for I have often had Experience that a Man cannot well judge of his own Notions, till either by setting them down in Paper, or in disco...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)