Quotes from Richard Steele

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

The marriage state, with or without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of Heaven and Hell we are capable of receiving in this life.

A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript.

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

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

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

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.

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

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It is wholesome and bracing for the mind to have its faculties kept on the stretch.

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

The insupportable labor of doing nothing.

The marriage 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.

To behold her is an immediate check to loose behavior; to love her is a liberal education.

I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as which we close our eyes.

Whenever you commend, add a compelling reason for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and the admiration of fools.

And I pray mark how he begins: he sets not up trophies to himself, but triumphs in his God-- "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." As the love of God is the beginning of all our mercies, so love to God should be the end and effect of them all. As the stream leads us to the spring, so all the gifts of God must lead us to the giver of them.

I have often lamented that we cannot shut our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes.

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

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

An author, when he first appears in the world, is very apt to believe it has nothing to think of but his Performances.

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.

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

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

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