Richard Steele Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A fool is in himself the object of pity, until he is flattered.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The insupportable labor of doing nothing.

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.

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

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.