Date: 1742

"[H]e bewailed her Loss with Groans, which would have pierced any Heart but those which are possessed by some People, and are made of a certain Composition not unlike Flint in its Hardness and other Properties; for you may strike Fire from them which will dart through the Eyes, but they can never...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1742

"He had never contracted a Debt in his Life, and was consequently the less ready at an Expedient to extricate himself. Tow-wouse was willing to give him Credit 'till next time, to which Mrs. Tow-wouse would probably have consented (for such was Joseph's Beauty, that it had ma...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: w. 1742-1750, 1803

"Ne ought with him availeth sexe or age; / Ne hoary elde, ne tender infant's cries / Can melt his iron heart in any wise"

— Cambridge, Richard Owen (1717-1802)

Date: 1755

"You've plainly shewn your soul was brazen, / And eke your snowy bosom flinty."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1766

"I boast not iron ribs, nor heart of steel, / Raw is my flesh, and warm my blood to feel"

— Lloyd, Evan (1734-1776)

Date: 1767

"For oh the time will come, when you shall feel / Stabs in your heart more sharp than stabs of steel"

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Date: 1780, 1788

"Authority! unfeeling power, / Whose iron heart can coldly doom / The Debtor, dragg'd from Pleasure's bower, / To sicken in the dungeon's gloom."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1788

"O yes, this is his valet that Lady Jane mentioned, this is her O'Donovan and my Aircourt, but my heart is steel'd against him"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1789

"'Is there a Man, who, wealthy to no end, / 'Ne'er knew the common wish to be a Friend, / 'Whose callous Heart's to all Compassion steel'd?"

— Combe, William (1742 -1823)

Date: 1790

"Is there a man whose iron heart is proof / Against such charms?"

— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)