Date: 1714

"The most, such Iron Hearts we are, and such / The base Barbarity of Humane Kind, / Hooting and Railing, and with Villainous Hands / Gathering the Filth from out the Common Ways, / To hurl upon her Head."

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1731

"Such! as the softest Bosom steels!"

— Ogle, George (1704-1746); Joannes Secundus Nicolaius

Date: 1767

"Though arm'd with iron breast, and heart of steel, / Who slew the lion fell, lov'd Hylas fair, / Young Hylas graceful with his curling hair"

— Fawkes, Francis (1720-1777); Theocritus (3rd. Century. B.C.)

Date: 1779, 1781

"Truth indeed is always truth, and reason is always reason; they have an intrinsick and unalterable value, and constitute that intellectual gold which defies destruction: but gold may be so concealed in baser matter that only a chymist can recover it; sense may be so hidden in unrefined and plebe...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)