SRSir Richard Steele

50 collected words

Sir Richard Steele

Life dates: 1671 AD — 1729 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1700 AD

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.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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02c. 1700 AD

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

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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03c. 1700 AD

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

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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04c. 1700 AD

To men addicted to delights, business is an interruption; to such as are cold to delights, business is an entertainment. For which reason it was said to one who commended a dull man for his application, "No thanks to him; if he had no business, he would have nothing to do."

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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05c. 1700 AD

The way to cheerfulness is to keep our bodies in exercise and our minds at ease.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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06c. 1700 AD

The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquillity until men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in one interest; and that without the concurrence of the former the latter are but impositions upon ourselves and others.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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07c. 1700 AD

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.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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08c. 1700 AD

All that nature has prescribed must be good; and as death is natural to us, it is absurdity to fear it. Fear loses its purpose when we are sure it cannot preserve us, and we should draw resolution to meet it, from the impossibility to escape it.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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09c. 1700 AD

The envious man is in pain upon all occasions which ought to give him pleasure. The relish of his life is inverted; and the objects which administer the highest satisfaction to those who are exempt from this passion give the quickest pangs to persons who are subject to it. All the perfections of their fellow-creatures are odious. Youth, beauty, valor and wisdom are provocations of their displeasure. What a wretched and apostate state is this! to be offended with excellence, and to hate a man because we approve him!

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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10c. 1700 AD

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.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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11c. 1700 AD

He that wants good sense is unhappy in having learning, for he has thereby only more ways of exposing himself; and he that has sense, knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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12c. 1700 AD

The most unhappy circumstance of all is, when each party is always laying up fuel for dissension, and gathering together a magazine of provocations to exasperate each other with when they are out of humor.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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13c. 1700 AD

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.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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14c. 1700 AD

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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15c. 1700 AD

Men spend their lives in the service of their passions, instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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16c. 1700 AD

Allow no man to be so free with you as to praise you to your face.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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17c. 1700 AD

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.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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18c. 1700 AD

Vanity makes men ridiculous, pride odious and ambition terrible.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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19c. 1700 AD

All a woman has to do in this world is contained within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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20c. 1700 AD

Ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools at a distance.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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21c. 1700 AD

Fire and sword are but slow engines of destruction in comparison with the tongue of the babbler.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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22c. 1700 AD

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

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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23c. 1700 AD

I know no evil so great as the abuse of the understanding and yet there is no one vice more common.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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24c. 1700 AD

I look upon an able statesman out of business like a huge whale, that will endeavour to overturn the ship unless he has an empty cask to play with.

Sir Richard Steele / quote

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