The bosom-weight, your stubborn gift,

That no philosophy can lift.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Presentiments.

O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,

Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay!

Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Arm th' obdur'd breast

With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 568.

Facts are stubborn things.

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771): Translation of Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. 1.

Facts are stubborn things.

Alain René Le Sage (1668-1747): Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. i.

Some say no evil thing that walks by night,

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,

Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost

That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,

No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 432.