Date: 1698

"Our own Thoughts, and those of others, do, in all our Conversations, use to come to us, clad in Words: Whence it happens, that 'tis very hard, liquidly and clearly to strip the Sense from those Words; and to consider It, and nothing but It."

— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)

Date: 1698

"In this Glass [her journal] she every Day dress'd her Mind, to this faithful Monitor she repair'd for Advice and Direction, compar'd the past with the present, judg'd of what would be by what had been, observ'd nicely the several successive Degrees of Holiness She got, and of humane Infirmity sh...

— Atterbury, Francis (1663-1732)

Date: 1698

"This Lady's fancy is just Slip-Stocking-high; and she seems to want Sense, more than her Breakfast."

— Collier, Jeremy (1650-1726)

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 1711

"Not to be tedious, there is scarce any Emotion in the Mind which does not produce a suitable Agitation in the Fan; insomuch, that if I only see the Fan of a disciplin'd Lady, I know very well whether she laughs, frowns, or blushes."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, May 26, 1711

"When a Gentleman speaks Coarsly, he has dressed himself Clean to no purpose: The Cloathing of our Minds certainly ought to be regarded before that of our Bodies."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1712

"Several of these little Hollows were stuffed with innumerable sorts of Trifles, which I shall forbear giving any particular Account of, and shall therefore only take Notice of what lay first and uppermost, which, upon our unfolding it and applying our Microscopes to it, appeared to be a Flame-co...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, March 29, 1712

"As Poetry delights in cloathing abstracted Ideas in Allegories and sensible Images, we find a magnificent Description of the Creation form'd after the same manner in one of the Prophets, wherein he describes the Almighty Architect as measuring the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand, meting out the...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Wednesday, April 30, 1712

"Lace and Drapery is as much a Man, as Wit and Turn is Passion."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Thursday, May 15, 1712

"It is extremely natural for us to desire to see such our Thoughts put into the Dress of Words, without which indeed we can scarce have a clear and distinct Idea of them our selves: When they are thus clothed in Expressions, nothing so truly shews us whether they are just or false, as those Effec...

— Budgell, Eustace (1686-1737)

Date: Friday, May 30, 1712

"To turn the Discourse, which from being witty grew to be malicious, the Matron of the Family took occasion, from the Subject, to wish that there were to be found amongst Men such faithful Monitors to dress the Mind by, as we consult to adorn the Body."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)