Date: 1796

"Low in a humble Preface authors kneel; / In vain, the wearied reader's heart is steel."

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)

Date: 1797

"And every sordid, base alloy, / Let's from our bosoms move; / For was our gold but Irish brass, / Good humour's stamp can make it pass"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: w. 1787, 1797

"They only who are curst with breasts of steel / Can mock the foibles of surviving love"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1797

"--oh! here's Redmond O Hanlon, though now the constable and the county keeper, yet he was a heart of steel, that I'm sure of."

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1797

"Yes, in Antrim I was a heart of steel, in Clonmel I was a white boy."

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1797

"For then first throbb'd an heart of steel."

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)

Date: 1797, 1810

"For pressure but new-springs the generous mind; /As gold by Vulcan's torture is refined."

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: July 1797, 1810

"See, while his thunders iron hearts assail, / The tyrants of each hemisphere turn pale!"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: w. 1794, 1797

"'Tis only those of purer clay / 'From sensual dross refined, / 'In whom the passions pleas'd obey / 'The God within the mind, / 'Who share my delegated aid, / 'Through Wisdom's golden mean convey'd / 'From the first source of sov'reign good."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)

Date: 1797

"here's Redmond O'Hanlon, though now the constable and the county keeper, yet he was a heart of steel, that I'm sure of."

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)