Date: 1748

"I was utterly confounded at this sudden transition, which affected me more than any reverse I had formerly felt; and a crowd of incoherent ideas rushed so impetuously upon my imagination, that my reason could neither separate nor connect them;"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1747-8

"If in look, if in speech, a girl waves way to undue levity, depend upon it, the devil has got one of his cloven feet in her heart already."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747-8

"Yet her charming body is not equally organized. The unequal partners pull two ways; and the divinity within her tears her silken frame."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1749

A "Somewhat" may inhabit in the human breast that resembles the "famous Trunkmaker in the Playhouse"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"I might honestly enough have concealed this Wish from the Reader, as it was one of those secret spontaneous Emotions of the Soul, to which the Reason is often a Stranger."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"His Conscience, however, immediately started at this Suggestion, and began to upbraid him with Ingratitude to his Benefactor. To this his Avarice answered, 'That his Conscience should have considered that Matter before, when he deprived poor Jones of his 500 l. That having quie...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"In return to which, Conscience, like a good Lawyer, attempted to distinguish between an absolute Breach of Trust, as here where the Goods were delivered, and a bare Concealment of what was found, as in the former Case. Avarice presently treated this with Ridicule, called it a Distinction without...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"The Passions, like the Managers of a Playhouse, often force Men upon Parts, without consulting, their Judgement, and sometimes without any Regard to their Talents"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"Those Persons, indeed, who have passed any Time behind the Scenes of this great Theatre, and are thoroughly acquainted not only with the several Disguises which are there put on, but also with the fantastic and capricious Behaviour of the Passions who are the Managers and Directors of this Theat...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1751

"All the senses, like the family at Harlowe-Place, in a confederacy against that which would animate, and give honour to the whole, were it allowed its proper precedence"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)