Lord Chesterfield Quotes
Most popular Lord Chesterfield Quotes
Style is the dress of thoughts.
Dispatch is the soul of business.
Cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.
Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.
Few people do business well who do nothing else.
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
Character must be kept bright, as well as clean.
An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
To please people is a great step toward persuading them.
The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.
Style is the dress of thoughts; and let them be ever so just.
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way in the world.
Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most, like it least.
Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different.
He who has the most friends and the fewest enemies is the strongest.
Never seem wiser, nor more well learned than the people you are with.
Do as you would be done by is the surest method that I know of pleasing.
Whoever is in a hurry, shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.
Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
There never were, since the creation of the world, two cases exactly parallel.
A man who cannot command his temper should not think of being a man of business.
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
Either a good or a bad reputation outruns and gels before people wherever they go.
Merit and knowledge will not gain hearts, though they will secure them when gained.
A joker is near akin to a buffoon; and neither of them is the least related to wit.
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.
Pocket all your knowledge with your watch, and never pull it out in company unless desired.
I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.
Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes.
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance, and without any visible reason.
Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough.
Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.
The heart has such an influence over the understanding that it is worth while to engage it in our interest.
When you have found the master passion of a man, remember never to trust to him where that passion is concerned.
Most arts require long study and application, but the most useful of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.
True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love to be treated yourself.
I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive.
Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves.
In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.
Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world. A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.
Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in advanced age. If we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old.
As for operas, they are essentially too absurd and extravagant to mention; I look upon them as a magic scene, contrived to please the eyes and the ears at the expense of the understanding.
Learning is acquired by reading books: but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various editions of them.
A strong mind sees things in their true proportions; a weak one views them through a magnifying medium; which, like the microscope, makes an elephant of a flea; magnifies all little objects, but cannot receive great ones.
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer it, than those whose laziness and despondency makes them give it up as unattainable.
If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust.
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not merely pull it out, and strike it, merely to show you have one.
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it, most people aim at it, and all people fear it. Few love it unless in themselves.
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but it will never be worn, nor shine, if it is not polished.
