Date: 1768

"Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions, tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1769

"His wealth shall circulate through all her veins, / His flowing gold shall warm her vig'rous heart, / And health and plenty visit ev'ry part;"

— Jones, Henry (1721-1770)

Date: 1769

"But, first, I'll tell thee thy detested deeds, / And gall, if possible, thine iron heart."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: 1769

"To the arts of the libertine, however fair, my heart had always been steeled."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1769

"Something like pity shakes my firm resolves, / And almost melts the iron heart of Zingis."

— Dow, Alexander (1735/6-1779)

Date: 1769

"Does thy iron heart / Deny me this--a portion of his grave?"

— Dow, Alexander (1735/6-1779)

Date: 1770

"Sylvia, if you persist to steel your heart, / Expect a mansion in that dire abode."

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1770

"Mean while, the duties of a man revolve, / And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: w. prior to April 1770; 1785, 1837, 1875

"Did not thy iron conscience blush to write / This Tophet of the gentle arts polite?"

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1770

"Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode / Of gloomy Dis, infernal god, / With pity when th' Orphean lyre / Did every iron heart inspire, / Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains, / And respited eternal pains."

— Dalton, John (b. 1709, d. 1763)