Date: 1743

"[T]here are Weaknesses in vulgar Life, which are commonly [Page 160] called Tenderness; to which great Minds are so entirely Strangers, that they have not even an Idea of them"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"Besides, as I never once thought, my Mind was useless to me, and I was an absolute Stranger to all the Pleasures arising from it"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"The Pleasantness of this Vision, therefore, served only, on his awakening, to set forth his present Misery with additional Horrour, and to heighten the dreadful Ideas which now crowded on his Mind"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1747

"Now the Purpose for which [Lestrange] principally intended his Book, as in his Preface he spends a great many Words to inform us, was for the Use and Instruction of Children; who being, as it were, a mere rasa tabula, or blank Paper, are ready indifferently for any Opinion, good or bad, taking a...

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"What sort of Children therefore are the Blank Paper, upon which such Morality as this ought to be written?"

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747

"Let the Children of Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of the Popish Countries, furnish him with Blank Paper for Principles, of which free-born Britons are not capable."

— Croxall, Samuel (1688/9-1752); Aesop

Date: 1747-8

"Lovelace, tell me, if thou canst, what sort of sign must thou hang out, wert thou obliged to give us a clear idea by it of the furniture of thy mind?"

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

Date: 1747-8

"A man who is gross in a woman's company ought to be knocked down with a club: for, like so many musical instruments, touch but a single wire, and the dear souls are sensible all over "

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

Date: 1748

"[B]ut now that I looked upon myself as a murderer, it is impossible to express the terrors of my imagination, which was incessantly haunted by the image of the deceased, and my bosom stung with the most exquisite agonies, of which I saw no end."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1748

"[A]nd in the mean time went to dress, with an intention of visiting Mrs. Snapper and Miss, whom I had utterly neglected and indeed almost forgot, since my dear Narcissa had resumed the empire of my soul."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)