Date: 1611

"His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1611

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1611

"Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1651

"And as the Grindstone to unpolish'd Steel / Gives Edge, and Lustre: so my Mind, I feel / VVhetted, and glaz'd by Fortunes turning VVheel"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1675

"And tears run trickling down her face, / Would e'en have mov'd a heart of brass."

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687); Lucian (c.120- d. after 180)

Date: 1693

"(Yet what smooth Sycophant by thee can gain? / When Lust it self strikes thy Flint-Heart in vain?)"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700) [Poem ascribed to]

Date: 1693

"Yet, thy moist Clay is pliant to Command; / Unwrought, and easie to the Potter's hand: / Now take the Mold; now bend thy Mind to feel / The first sharp Motions of the Forming Wheel."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1694, 1708

"At length, with more prevailing rage possest, / Her jealous honour steels her daring breast / The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave, / And nicer virtue now confirms her brave."

— Yalden, Thomas (1670-1736)

Date: 1697, 1700

"Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind / Because to Clay unequally confined; / Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass / Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?"

— Manilius, Marcus (fl. 1st Century AD), Creech, Thomas (1659-1700)

Date: 1700

"As softest metals are not slow to melt, / And pity soonest runs in gentle minds:"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)