Richard Steele

Simplicity of all things is the hardest to be copy.

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

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

The person whom you favoured with a loan, if he be a good man, will think himself in your debt after he has paid you.

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

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

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

Violins are the lively, forward, importunate wits, that distinguish themselves by the flourishes of imagination, sharpness of repartee, glances of satire, and bear away the upper part in every consort.

A woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript.

A true and genuine impudence is ever the effect of ignorance without the least sense of it.

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 look upon it as a Point of Morality, to be obliged by those who endeavour to oblige me.

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts; when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.

To be exempt from the Passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing Solitude.

A Woman is naturally more helpless than the other Sex; and a Man of Honour and Sense should have this in his View in all Manner of Commerce with her.

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

The married 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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