Date: 1664

"But the source which produces these spirits is usually so abundant that they enter these cavities in sufficient quantity to have the force to push out against the surrounding matter and make it expand, thus tightening all the tiny nerve-fibres which come from it (in the way that a moderate wind ...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1664

"These things being thus premised, may it not be probable enough that these Spirits in the other World, shall onely be the Soul's Vehicle and Habit, and indeed really that [GREEK], mentioned by the Apostle; by a vital re-union with which, it may supereminently out-act all that ever she was able t...

— Power, Henry (1623-1668)

Date: 1673

Modest "is indeed a vertu of a general influence; does not only ballast the mind with sober and humble thoughts of ones self, but also steers every part of the outward frame."

— Allestree, Richard (1611/2-1681)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

Surveying the "Powers of our own Minds" is like fathoming "the depths of the Ocean": "'Tis of great use to the Sailor to know the length of his Line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the Ocean. 'Tis well he knows, that it is long enough to reach the bottom, at such Places as are ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1691

"Thirdly, Let us hence duly learn to prize and value our Souls; is the Body such a rare Piece, what this is the Soul? the Body is but the Husk or Shell, the Soul is the Kernel; the Body is but the Cask, the Soul the precious Liquor contained in it; the Body is but the Cabinet; the Soul the Jewel;...

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

Date: 1697

"As a Ship at Sea running swiftly thro the Waves, leaves behind a Track, which is almost as soon lost as made, so that no sign can be found of its Passage thro that fluid Element: So the moisture of the Brain may be susceptible of an Idea for the present, but 'tis not lasting, nor is there any si...

— D'Assigny, Marius (1643-1717)

Date: 1708, 1714

"For besides that our Reason, which knows the Cheat, will never rest thorowly satisfy'd on such a Bottom, but turn us often a-drift, and toss us in a Sea of Doubt and Perplexity."

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

Date: 1710, 1714

""For according as these Passions veer, my Interest veers, my Steerage varies; and I make alternately, now this, now that, to be my Course and Harbour."

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

Date: Wednesday, June 18, 1712

"The strange and absurd Variety that is so apparent in Men's Actions, shews plainly they can never proceed immediately from Reason; so pure a Fountain emits no such troubled Waters: They must necessarily arise from the Passions, which are to the Mind as the Winds to a Ship, they only can move it,...

— Anonymous

Date: 1713, 1734

"And although it may, perhaps, seem an uneasy reflexion to some, that when they have taken a circuit through so many refined and unvulgar notions, they should at last come to think like other men: yet, methinks, this return to the simple dictates of Nature, after having wandered through the wild ...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)