Date: 1750

"A mind in wisdom old, in lenience young, / From fervent truth where every virtue sprung; / Where all was real, modest, plain, sincere; / Worth above show, and goodness unsevere: / View'd round and round, as lucid diamonds throw / Still as you turn them a revolving glow, / So did his mind reflect...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1751, 1777

"If refined sense and exalted sense be not so useful as common sense, their rarity, their novelty, and the nobleness of their objects make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind: As gold, though less serviceable than iron, acquires, from its scarcity, a value, which is much ...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"The one [reason] discovers objects, as they really stand in nature, without addition or diminution: The other [taste] has a productive faculty, and gilding or staining all natural objects with the colours, borrowed from internal sentiment, raises, in a manner, a new creation."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751

"[H]is heart was shod with a metal much harder than iron, which he was afraid nothing but hell-fire would be able to melt."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

"My breast, by wary maxims steel'd, / Not all those charms shall force to yield"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1757, 1769

"As thus to touch his iron heart they try'd, / The Cyclops smiling, scornful thus reply'd:"

— Wilkie, William (1721-1772)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"The darts of destiny have almost pierc'd / My marble heart."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"Men's minds are temper'd, like their swords, for war."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: 1759

A "steely Heart can brave the boist'rous Seas"

— Grainger, James (1721-1766)

Date: 1759

"For well I know, nor Flint, nor ruthless Steel, / Can arm the Breast of such a gentle Maid."

— Grainger, James (1721-1766)