39 Richard Steele Quotes

Richard Steele quotes

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

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

   Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

3. I am come to a tavern alone to eat a steak, after which I shall return to the office.

4. 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.

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

6. The finest woman in nature should not detain me an hour from you; but you must sometimes suffer the rivalship of the wisest men.

7. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

13. No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience:

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

2. Simplicity of all things is the hardest to be copy.

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

4. 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.

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

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

7. 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.

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

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

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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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.

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

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

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

20. 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.

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

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

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

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

25. 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.

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