Richard Steele Quotations

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

Reading is to the mind what exercising is to the body.

There is no Pleasure like that of receiving Praise from the Praiseworthy

That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart

A Woman is naturally more helpless than the other Sex; and a Man of Honour and Sense should have this in his View in all Manner of Commerce with her.

The married state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of heaven and hell we are capable of receiving in this life.

A little in drink, but at all times your faithful husband.

A healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living.

A woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript

I cannot think of any character below the flatterer, except he who envies him

I look upon it as a Point of Morality, to be obliged by those who endeavour to oblige me

It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.

The fool within himself is the object of pity, until he is flattered.

It is an endless and frivolous Pursuit to act by any other Rule than the Care of satisfying our own Minds in what we do

To behold her is an immediate check to loose behavior; to love her is a liberal education.

No woman can be handsome by the force of features alone, any more than she can be witty only by the help of speech

They that live in a trading street are not disturbed at the passage of carts

The truth of it is, the first rudiments of education are given very indiscreetly by most parents

The conquest of passion gives ten times more happiness than we can reap from the gratification of it

I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes

Violins are the lively, forward, importunate wits, that distinguish themselves by the flourishes of imagination, sharpness of repartee, glances of satire, and bear away the upper part in every consort.

A lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

When a man is not disposed to hear music, there is not a more disagreeable sound in harmony than that of the violin.

There is hardly that person to be found who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and sense, than honesty and virtue.

Age in a virtuous person, of either sex, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth.

Pride destroys all symmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the small-pox.

Pleasure seizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leisure for any good office in life which contradicts the gayety of the present hour.

Since our persons are not of our own making, when they are such as appear defective or uncomely, it is, methinks, an honest and laudable fortitude to dare to be ugly.

Such is the weakness of our nature, that when men are a little exalted in their condition they immediately conceive they have additional senses, and their capacities enlarged not only above other men, but above human comprehension itself.

Conversation never sits easier upon us than when we now and then discharge ourselves in a symphony of laughter, which may not improperly be called the chorus of conversation.

Since we cannot promise our selves constant health, let us endeavour at such temper as may be our best support in the decay of it.

He that has sense knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it.

Pleasure, when it is a man's chief purpose, disappoints itself; and the constant application to it palls the faculty of enjoying it.

A favor well bestowed is almost as great an honor to him who confers it as to him who receives it.

Nothing is more silly than the pleasure some people take in "speaking their minds." A man of this make will say a rude thing for the mere pleasure of saying it, when an opposite behavior, full as innocent, might have preserved his friend, or made his fortune.

Though very troublesome to others, anger is most so to him that has it.

It is a secret known but to few, yet of no small use in the conduct of life, that when you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.

It is an impertinent and unreasonable fault in conversation for one man to take up all the discourse.

The world is grown so full of dissimulation and compliment, that men's words are hardly any signification of their thoughts.

Of all the affections which attend human life, the love of glory is the most ardent.

A man cannot have an idea of perfection in another, which he was never sensible of in himself.

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts; when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.

A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.

It may be remarked in general, that the laugh of men of wit is for the most part but a feint, constrained kind of half-laugh, as such persons are never without some diffidence about them; but that of fools is the most honest, natural, open laugh in the world.

The insupportable labor of doing nothing.

Praise from an enemy is the most pleasing of all commendations.

I know of no manner of speaking so offensive as that of giving praise, and closing it with an exception.

You see, among men who are honored with the common appellation ogentleman, many contradictions to that character.

A Daughter: The companion, the friend, and the confidant of her mother, and the object of a pleasure something like the love between the angels to her father.

Mutual good humor is a dress we ought to appear in wherever we meet, and we should make no mention of what concerns ourselves, without it be of matters wherein our friends ought to rejoice.

The praise of an ignorant man is only good-will, and you should receive his kindness as he is a good neighbor in society, and not as a good judge of your actions in point of fame and reputation.

It is a very melancholy reflection that men are usually so weak that it is absolutely necessary for them to know sorrow and pain to be in their right senses.

A man advanced in years that thinks fit to look back on his former life, and calls that only life which was passed with satisfaction and enjoyment, excluding all parts which were not pleasant to him, will find himself very young, if not in infancy.

The person, whom you favored with a loan, if he be a good man, will think himself in your debt after he has paid you.

There are so few who can grow old with a good grace.

No woman is capable of being beautiful who is not incapable of being false.

When a man has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass.

Will. Honeycomb calls these over-offended ladies the outrageously virtuous.

Though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; to love her was a liberal education.

I was going home two hours ago, but was met by Mr. Griffith, who has kept me ever since. . . . I will come within a pint of wine.

It is to beoted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.

There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery.

One common calamity makes men extremely affect each other, though they differ in every other particular

Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.

It is the duty of a great person so to demean himself, as that whatever endowments he may have, he may appear to value himself upon no qualities but such as any man may arrive at.

Whether a pretty woman grants or withholds her favors, she always likes to be asked for them.

Readings is to the mind what exercice is to the body.

The survivorship of a worthy man in his son is a pleasure scarce inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life.

It is a certain sign of an ill heart to be inclined to defamation. They who are harmless and innocent can have no gratification that way; but it ever arises from a neglect of what is laudable in a man's self.

Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weakness of an exalted character.

The man is mechanically turned, and made for getting. . . . It was verily prettily said that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.

The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquility until men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in one interest

Compassion does not only refine and civilize human nature, but has something in it more pleasing and agreeable, than what can be met with in such an indolent happiness, such an indifference to mankind, as that in which the stoics placed their wisdom. As love is the most delightful passion, pity is nothing else but love softened by a degree of sorrow: In short, it is a kind of pleasing anguish, anguish as well as generous sympathy, that knits mankind together, and blends them in the same common lot.

It has been a sort of maxim, that the greatest art is to conceal art; but I know not how, among some people we meet with, their greatest cunning is to appear cunning.

I love to consider an Infidel, whether distinguished by the title of deist, atheist, or free-thinker.

How few there are who are furnished with abilities sufficient to recommend their actions to the admiration of the world, and distinguish themselves from the rest of mankind.

Whoever would be wise should read the Proverbs; whoever would be holy should read the Psalms.

Simplicity of all things is the hardest to be copy.

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

It is a wonderful thing that so many, and they not reckoned absurd, shall entertain those with whom they converse by giving them the history of their pains and aches and imagine such narrations their quota of conversation.

People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.

Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.

Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.