Date: 1713

"The Stoical Scheme of Supplying our Wants by lopping off our Desires, is like cutting off our Feet when we want Shoes."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1716

"We are gratify'd to see an unexpected Idea presented to our Understanding, and wonder at the beautiful Conjunction of Notions so separate and remote before; and whatever is marvellous is delightful too; as we always feel a Pleasure at the sight of Foreigners and their Garments, so the Mind rejoi...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1718

"Tropes at first, in the rude Times of the World, us'd for Necessity, were soon found to be Ornamental, and to give Strength and Gracefulness to the Turn of Men's Thoughts: As Garments first put on for the necessary Defence of the Body against the Severities of the Weather, were quickly f...

— Blackwall, Anthony (bap. 1672, d. 1730)

Date: Friday, April 17. 1724

"Their Imaginations are thin, and delicate; and play lightly on the Skirts of Objects: But they are too weak for solid Reasoning; and, in any Thing abstracted, and above the Pitch of the Senses, they are miserably Impotent, and grow presently weary."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1727

"The common Fluency of Speech in many Men, and most Women, is owing to a Scarcity of Matter, and a Scarcity of Words; for whoever is a Master of Language, and hath a Mind full of Ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the Choice of both; whereas common Speakers have only one Set of Ide...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1737

"So many things freely thrown out, such lengths of unreserv'd friendship, thoughts just warm from the brain, without any polishing or dress, the very dishabille of the understanding."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1744

"As the body is said to clothe the soul, so the nerves may be said to constitute her inner garment."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1745

"The Ideas must be cloathed in a bodily Form, to make it visible and palpable to the gross Understanding."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"He, therefore, who is provided with such Armour, taken, if we may say so, from the Armory of Heaven, may be proof against the sharpest Arrows of Fortune, and defy the Impotence of human Malice; and though he cannot be secure against those Ills which are the ordinary Appendages of Man's Lot, yet ...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: August 12, 1738, to Nov. 1, 1739 [1748]

"Therefore the Eyes of my Understanding are not yet open'd, but the Old Veil is still upon my Heart."

— Wesley, John (1703-1791)