Date: 1692

"I tell you, Madam, Love in my Breast is with greater difficulty remov'd, than Foreign Aids out of the distressed Kingdom they are call'd in to assist; Love has subdued me all, and I am entirely a Slave."

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1706, 1715 [1706-1721]

"At the sight of this object I am not my own master: my soul is disturbed and rebels, and I fancy it has a mind to leave me!"

— Anonymous

Date: 1719

A "strange Impression upon the Mind, from we know not what Springs, and by we know not what Power," may over-rule us

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1719

"I now began to consider seriously my Condition, and the Circumstance I was reduc'd to, and I drew up the State of my Affairs in Writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like to have but few Heirs, as to deliver my Thoughts from daily poring upon them, and a...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1743

"This young Lady, amongst many other good Ingredients, had three very predominant Passions, to wit, Vanity, Wantonness, and Avarice."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"As his most powerful and predominant Passion was Ambition, so Nature had with consummate Propriety, adapted all his Faculties to the attaining those glorious Ends, to which this Passion directed him."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"Upon this, my Son Swane invaded the Coasts with several Ships, and committed many outragious Cruelties; which, indeed, did his business, as they served me to apply to the Fear of this King, which I had long since discovered to be his predominant Passion."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"He was very bad at acting any Part that was not quite sincere; but the present Confusion of her Mind was so great, she could not distinguish very clearly; and not knowing he was acquainted with what had passed between her and her Confidant, his Behaviour threw her into a great Consternation, and...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"Reason, however we flatter ourselves, hath not such despotic Empire in our Minds, that it can, with imperial Voice, hush all our Sorrow in a Moment"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

It may cost one "more struggling than may easily be believed, utterly to conquer his Reluctance, and to banish away every Degree of Humanity from his Mind"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)