You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;

Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epigram.

And this the burden of his song

Forever used to be,—

I care for nobody, no, not I,

If no one cares for me.

Isaac Bickerstaff (1735-1787): Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2.