Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for a hermitage; If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free; Angels along that soar above, Enjoy such liberty.

-Lovelace, Richard
  Lucasta,'To  Althea, from Prison'.

Hiswhole carcassseemedtobemade of iron.There was no give in himöno bounce, no softness. He sailed through American history like a steel ship loaded with monoliths made of granite.

-Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)
Of President Grover Cleveland. Quoted in Fred Hobson Mencken:  A Life (1994).

What worlds delight, or joy of living speech Can heart, so plunged in sea of sorrows deep, And heape'  d with so huge misfortunes, reach? The careful cold beginneth for to creep, And in my heart his iron arrow steep, Soon as I think upon my bitter bale.

-Spenser, Edmund
  The Faerie Queen, bk.1, canto 7, stanza 39.

His iron coat all overgrown with rust, Was underneath envelope'  d with gold, Whose glistering gloss darkened with filthy dust, Well yet appeare'  d, to have been of old A work of rich entail, and curious mold, Woven with antics and wild imagery.

-Spenser, Edmund
  Of Mammon.The Faerie Queen, bk.2, canto 7, stanza 4.

And as she looked about, she did behold, How over that same door was likewise writ, Be bold, be bold, and everywhere Be bold† At last she spied at that room's upper end Another iron door, on which was writ Be not too bold.

-Spenser, Edmund
  The Faerie Queen, bk.3, canto11, stanza 54.

I stand before you tonight in my green chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, my fair hair gently waved†the Iron Lady of the Western World? Me? A Cold War warrior? Well, yesöif that is how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life.

-Thatcher, Margaret HildaThatcher, Baroness
  Speech, Dorking. Alluding to the title bestowed upon her by the Soviet defence journal, in Red Star, 31 Jan.

If one leads a country such as Britainöa strong country that has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and bad, that isalwaysreliable, thenyou must haveatouch of iron about you.

-Thatcher, Margaret HildaThatcher, Baroness
  In TheTimes.

In Baxter's view, the care of external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the'saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage.

-Weber, Max
^5  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (translated byTalcott Parsons,1930), ch.5. Richard Baxter (1615^91) was an eminent Puritan, chaplain of Cromwell's army.