Decency of behavior in our lives obtains the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions.
—Richard Steele
That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Aging, Age
I cannot think of any character below the flatterer, except he who envies him.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Flattery
Vanity makes men ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Vanity
I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Silence
All a woman has to do in this world is contained within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Woman
Of all the affections which attend human life, the love of glory is the most ardent.
—Richard Steele
When one has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Truth, Brevity
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.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Conversation
A modest person seldom fails to gain the good will of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Modesty
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.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Service, Public, Zeal
Inquisitive people are the funnels of conversation; they do not take anything for their own use, but merely to pass it on to others.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Curiosity
Conversation never sits easier than when we now and then discharge ourselves in a symphony of laughter; which may not improperly be called the chorus of conversation.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Laughter
Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take place of pleasures, profits, and all other private gratifications. Whoever wants this motive, is an open enemy, or an inglorious neuter to mankind, in proportion to the misapplied advantages with which nature and fortune have blessed him.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Zeal
There is a kind of sympathy in souls that fits them for each other; and we may be assured when we see two persons engaged in the warmths of a mutual affection, that there are certain qualities in both their minds which bear a resemblance to one another.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Sympathy
The fool within himself is the object of pity, until he is flattered.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Foolishness, Fools
Simplicity, of all things, is the hardest to be copied.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Simplicity
Men spend their lives in the service of their passions, instead of employing their passions in the service of their life.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Passion
The highest point of good-breeding is to show a very nice regard to your own dignity, and with that in your own heart, to express your value for the man above you.
—Richard Steele
Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
—Richard Steele
A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Letters
In thee oppressors soothe their angry brow; in thee, th’ oppress’d forget tyrannic pow’r; in thee, the wretch condemn’d is equal to his judge; and the sad lover to his cruel fair; nay, all the shining glories men pursue, when thou art wanted, are but empty noise.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Sleep
A little in drink, but at all times your faithful husband.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Husbands, Marriage
A wag is in the last order even of pretenders to wit and humor.—Generally he has his mind prepared to receive some occasion of merriment, but is of himself too empty to draw any out of his own thoughts, and therefore he laughs at the next thing he meets, not because it is ridiculous, but because he is under the necessity of laughing.
—Richard Steele
There is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting passions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks, and pale complexions are the natural indications of a female gamester. Her morning sleeps are not able to repay her midnight watchings.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Gambling
An inquisitive man is a creature naturally very vacant of thought itself, and therefore forced to apply to foreign assistance.
—Richard Steele
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.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Wine
Age in a virtuous person, of either sex, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth.
—Richard Steele
Simplicity of all things is the hardest to copy.
—Richard Steele
Topics: Simplicity, Imitation
Men of courage, men of sense, and men of letters are frequent: but a true gentleman is what one seldom sees.
—Richard Steele
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Max Beerbohm British Humorist
- Richard Crashaw British Poet
- Peter Gabriel British Musician
- Robert Ranke Graves British Writer
- Thomas Lovell Beddoes English Poet
- Reynolds Price American Novelist
- T. S. Eliot American-born British Poet
- William of Ockham English Philosopher, Polemicist
- Roger Bannister British Athlete, Neurologist
- William Blackstone English Judge
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