Richard Steele Quotes

Quotes about:

Age Character Flattery Giving Honor Inspirational Modesty

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

Richard Steele

Fire, Gossip, Tongue

50 Copy quote
Readings is to the mind what exercice is to the body.

Richard Steele

Reading, Mind, Body

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

Richard Steele

Ambition, Pride, Vanity

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

Richard Steele

Mind, Disease, Flattery

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1832). “The Spectator: with notes and general index, from the London stereotype edition ...”, p.346

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

Richard Steele

Inspirational Life, Passion, People

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

Richard Steele

Art, Learning, Knowledge

Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1764). “The Tatler; or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq”, p.44

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

Richard Steele

Receiving, Praise, Pleasure

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Alexander Chalmers (1822). “The Tatler”, p.94

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

Richard Steele

Giving, Offensive, Praise

Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1710). “The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq”, p.302

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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.

Richard Steele

Men, Thinking, Good Man

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1860). “The Spectator: A New Edition”, p.429

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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.

Richard Steele

Lying, Men, Needs

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.103

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

Richard Steele

Wise, Would Be, Psalms

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Simplicity of all things is the hardest to be copy.

Richard Steele

Simplicity, Imitation, Hardest

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Guardian: With a Biographical, Historical, and Critical Preface by the Rev. Rob. Lynam”, p.63

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

Richard Steele

Pretty Woman, Favors, Likes

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

Richard Steele

Beauty, Beautiful, Incapable

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.104

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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.

Richard Steele

Girl, Daughter, Mother

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

Richard Steele

Men, Purpose, Pleasure

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.475

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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.

Richard Steele

Pain, Failure, Reflection

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.410

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

Richard Steele

Men, World, Flattery

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.62

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

Richard Steele

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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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.

Richard Steele

Health, Self, Support

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.186

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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.

Richard Steele

Fall, Men, Secret

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.64

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

Richard Steele

Inspirational, Men, Design

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1837). “The Tatler: With Notes and a General Index ; Complete in One Volume”, p.9

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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.

Richard Steele

Friendship, Dresses, Matter

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.49

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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.

Richard Steele

Laughter, Men, Laughing

Sir Richard Steele (1837). “The Guardian, with Notes, and General Indexes: Complete in One Volume”, p.43

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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.

Richard Steele

Pain, Giving, Quota

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.132

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Died: September 1, 1729
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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