Date: 1760-7

"There was the great king Aldrovandus, and Bosphorus, and Capadocius, and Dardanus, and Pontus, and Asius,--to say nothing of the iron-hearted Charles the XIIth, whom the Countess of K***** herself could make nothing of"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1761

Faulkland has "steeled my husband's heart against me, heaped infamy on my head, and loaded my mother's age with sorrow and remorse"

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1761

"If the unfortunate Mr. Arnold sees his error, can you be so unchristian as to endeavour at steeling his wife's heart against him?"

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1761

"Inspiration pure impart, / Nerve her Arms and steel her Heart."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined, as the richest jewels are soonest found to wear their settings."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1764

"Against ev'ry virtue the bosom to steel, / And only of dress the anxieties feel"

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: 1764

"Shall the winged Inhabitants of Air come tamely to the Hand that feeds them; and shall Man steel his Heart against all Impressions of Kindness, and all Sentiments of GRATITUDE?"

— Gentleman, Francis (1728-1784)

Date: 1764

"Bold was the man, and fenc'd in ev'ry part /With oak, and ten-fold brass about the heart, / To build a play who tortur'd first his brain, / And then dar'd launch it on this stormy main."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: Published serially, 1765-1770

"O, my Sister, I would to Heaven that he had now been present, as I have been present, to have his Soul melted and minted as mine has been"

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: Published serially, 1765-1770

"[H]is Heart must have been harder than the Stones of Thebes, if you did not attract it and move it, at pleasure, by the Touch of those Fingers and the Bewitchment of those Accents"

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)