Date: Thursday, August 9, 1711

"Where Sovereigns have it [love of glory] by Impressions received from Education only, it creates an Ambitious rather than a Noble Mind; where it is the natural Bent of the Prince's Inclination, it prompts him to the Pursuit of Things truly Glorious."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Tuesday, September 11, 1711

"I am unhappily far gone in Building, and am one of that Species of Men who are properly denominated Castle-Builders, who scorn to be beholden to the Earth for a Foundation, or dig in the Bowels of it for Materials; but erect their Structures in the most unstable of Elements, the Air, Fancy alone...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, September 12, 1711

"So very dreadful had he made himself to me, that altho' it is above twenty Years since I felt his heavy Hand, yet still once a Month at least I dream of him, so strong an Impression did he make on my Mind."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, September 17, 1711

"A Mind thus equal and uniform may be deserted by little fashionable Admirers and Followers, but will ever be had in Reverence by Souls like it self. The Branches of the Oak endure all the Seasons of the Year, though its Leaves fall off in Autumn; and these too will be restored with the returning...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Friday, October 26, 1711

"A Man, they say, wears the Picture of his Mind in his Countenance; and one Man's Eyes are Spectacles to his who looks at him to read his Heart."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, November 21, 1711

"There is a Creature who has all the Organs of Speech, a tolerable good Capacity for conceiving what is said to it, together with a pretty proper Behaviour in all the Occurrences of common Life; but naturally very vacant of Thought in it self, and therefore forced to apply it self to foreign Assi...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Wednesday, November 21, 1711

"This Curiosity, without Malice or Self-interest, lays up in the Imagination a Magazine of Circumstances which cannot but entertain when they are produced in Conversation."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, December 3, 1711

"Among all the Diseases of the Mind, there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the Love of Flattery."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, December 3, 1711

"First we flatter ourselves, and then the Flattery of others is sure of Success. It awakens our Self-Love within, a Party which is ever ready to revolt from our better Judgment, and join the Enemy without."

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: Monday, December 3, 1711

"A good Name is fitly compared to a precious Ointment, and when we are praised with Skill and Decency, 'tis indeed the most agreeable Perfume, but if too strongly admitted into a Brain of a less vigorous and happy Texture, 'twill, like too strong an Odour, overcome the Senses, and prove perniciou...

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)