Best 160 quotes of Samuel Richardson on MyQuotes

A beautiful woman must expect to be more accountable for her steps, than one less attractive.

A departure from the truth was hardly ever known to be a single one.

A feeling heart is a blessing that no one, who has it, would be without; and it is a moral security of innocence; since the heart that is able to partake of the distress of another, cannot wilfully give it.

A fop takes great pains to hang out a sign, by his dress, of what he has within.

A good man, though he will value his own countrymen, yet will think as highly of the worthy men of every nation under the sun.

A good man will extend his munificence to the industrious poor of all persuasions reduced by age, infirmity, or accident; to thosewho labour under incurable maladies; and to the youth of either sex, who are capable of beginning the world with advantage, but have not the means.

A good man will honor him who lives up to his religious profession, whatever it be.

A good man will not engage even in a national cause, without examining the justice of it.

Air and manners are more expressive than words.

All angry persons are to be treated, by the prudent, as children.

All human excellence is but comparative — there are persons who excel us, as much as we fancy we excel the meanest.

All our pursuits, from childhood to manhood, are only trifles of different sorts and sizes, proportioned to our years and views.

All that hoops are good for is to clean dirty shoes and keep fellows at a distance.

All women, from the countess to the cook-maid, are put into high good humor with themselves when a man is taken with them at firstsight. And be they ever so plain, they will find twenty good reasons to defend the judgment of such a man.

A man who flatters a woman hopes either to find her a fool or to make her one.

An acquaintance with the muses, in the education of youth, contributes not a little to soften manners. It gives a delicate turn to the imagination and a polish to the mind.

An honest heart is not to be trusted with itself in bad company.

Angry men make themselves beds of nettles.

A prudent person, having to do with a designing one, will always distrust most when appearances are fairest.

As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness or misery of the future man.

A widow's refusal of a lover is seldom so explicit as to exclude hope.

Be sure don't let people's telling you, you are pretty, puff you up; for you did not make yourself, and so can have no praise due to you for it. It is virtue and goodness only, that make the true beauty.

But let not those worthy young women, who may think themselves destined to a single life, repine over-much at their lot; since, possibly, if they have had no lovers, or having had one, two, or three, have not found a husband, they have had rather a miss than a loss, as men go.

By my soul, I can neither eat, drink, nor sleep; nor, what's still worse, love any woman in the world but her.

Calamity is the test of integrity.

Chastity, like piety, is a uniform grace.

Distresses, however heavy at the time, appear light, and even joyous, to the reflecting mind, when worthily overcome.

Every one, more or less, loves Power, yet those who most wish for it are seldom the fittest to be trusted with it.

Every thing is pretty that is young.

Evil courses can yield pleasure no longer than while thought and reflection can be kept off.

For the human mind is seldom at stay: If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse.

For tutors, although they may make youth learned, do not always make them virtuous.

Friendly satire may be compared to a fine lancet, which gently breathes a vein for health's sake.

Good men must be affectionate men.

Handsome husbands often make a wife's heart ache.

He only who gave life has a power over it.

Honesty is good sense, politeness, amiableness,--all in one.

Honeymoon lasts not nowadays above a fortnight.

Humility is a grace that shines in a high condition but cannot, equally, in a low one because a person in the latter is already, perhaps, too much humbled.

I am forced, as I have often said, to try to make myself laugh, that I may not cry: for one or other I must do.

If a woman knows a man to be a libertine, yet will, without scruple, give him her company, he will think half the ceremony between them is over; and will probably only want an opportunity to make her repent of her confidence in him.

If the education and studies of children were suited to their inclinations and capacities, many would be made useful members of society that otherwise would make no figure in it.

I have my choice: who can wish for more? Free will enables us to do everything well while imposition makes a light burden heavy.

In all Works of This, and of the Dramatic Kind, STORY, or AMUSEMENT, should be considered as little more than the Vehicle to the more necessary INSTRUCTION.

I never knew a man who deserved to be thought well of for his morals who had a slight opinion of our Sex in general.

It is a happy art to know when one has said enough. I would leave my hearers wishing me to say more rather than give them cause toshow, by their inattention, that I had said too much.

It may be very generous in one person to offer what it would be ungenerous in another to accept.

Let a man do what he will by a single woman, the world is encouragingly apt to think Marriage a sufficient amends.

Love before marriage is absolutely necessary.

Love gratified is love satisfied, and love satisfied is indifference begun.