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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

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Richard Steele
Age: 57 †
Born: 1672
Born: March 12
Died: 1729
Died: September 1
Journalist
Playwright
Politician
Writer
Dublin city
Sir Richard Steele
Full
Words
Signification
Men
Dissimulation
World
Flattery
Compliment
Hardly
Grown
Thoughts

More quotes by Richard Steele

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Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weakness of an exalted character.
Richard Steele
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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.
Richard Steele
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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
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It is to beoted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.
Richard Steele
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There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery.
Richard Steele
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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
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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
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Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.
Richard Steele
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He that has sense knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it.
Richard Steele
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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
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No woman is capable of being beautiful who is not incapable of being false.
Richard Steele
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The survivorship of a worthy man in his son is a pleasure scarce inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life.
Richard Steele
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Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.
Richard Steele
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The praise of an ignorant man is only good-will, and you should receive his kindness as he is a good neighbor in society, and not as a good judge of your actions in point of fame and reputation.
Richard Steele
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Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.
Richard Steele
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When a man is not disposed to hear music, there is not a more disagreeable sound in harmony than that of the violin.
Richard Steele
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Conversation never sits easier upon us 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
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A favor well bestowed is almost as great an honor to him who confers it as to him who receives it.
Richard Steele
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Pride destroys all symmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the small-pox.
Richard Steele
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It is the duty of a great person so to demean himself, as that whatever endowments he may have, he may appear to value himself upon no qualities but such as any man may arrive at.
Richard Steele