Date: May 10, 1704

"By the Pulpit are adumbrated the writings of our modern saints in Great Britain, as they have spiritualised and refined them from the dross and grossness of sense and human reason."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1725

"I will give you the saddest Account you have ever yet been entertain'd with; but you must wrap your Heart in a Case of Adamant, or it will melt away in the hearing of it."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1725

"If Artander's Heart were not as hard as the Rock he has been scrutinizing into, he wou'd never have laid such strict Injunctions on my Pen, and robb'd me of my darling Pleasure; but to let you see how ready I am to relinquish every thing that gives you uneasiness, I have, in compliance with my F...

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1727

"He well knew a Plebeian Mind was never Proof against the Persuasive Power of Tempting Gold; a Metal which insensibly diffuses itself into every Sense we have, and by Art Magick forces a liking, though Death and Ruin be its Attendants."

— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)

Date: 1756, 1766

"And as to gold's being so yielding and ductile by human art, it is to be observed, that in return it exerts a greater power on the human mind. "

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1760-7

"Honours, like impressions upon coin, may give an ideal and local value to a bit of base metal; but Gold and Silver will pass all the world over without any other recommendation than their own weight."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"There was the great king Aldrovandus, and Bosphorus, and Capadocius, and Dardanus, and Pontus, and Asius,--to say nothing of the iron-hearted Charles the XIIth, whom the Countess of K***** herself could make nothing of"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1761

Faulkland has "steeled my husband's heart against me, heaped infamy on my head, and loaded my mother's age with sorrow and remorse"

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1761

"If the unfortunate Mr. Arnold sees his error, can you be so unchristian as to endeavour at steeling his wife's heart against him?"

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1764

"Shall the winged Inhabitants of Air come tamely to the Hand that feeds them; and shall Man steel his Heart against all Impressions of Kindness, and all Sentiments of GRATITUDE?"

— Gentleman, Francis (1728-1784)