Lord chesterfield quotes

Love has been not unaptly compared to the small-pox, which most people have sooner or later.

Remember that whatever knowledge you do not solidly lay the foundation of before you are eighteen, you will never be master of while you breathe.

A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.

Whenever a man seeks your advice he generally seeks your praise.

Of those who really love their sons, few know how to do it. Some spoil them when they are young, and then quarrel with them when they are grown up, for having been spoiled; some love them like mothers, and attend only to the bodily health and strength of the hopes of their family, solemnize his birthday, and rejoice, like the subjects of the Great Mogul, at the increase of his bulk: while others, minding, as they think, only essentials, take pains and pleasure to see in their heir, all their favourite weaknesses and imperfections.

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latterdeserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious.

Few fathers care much for their sons, or at least, most of them care more for their money. Of those who really love their sons, few know how to do it.

Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world.

We are as often duped by diffidence as by confidence.

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.

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.

Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do from different lights.

Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it.

The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.

Prepare yourself for the world, as athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.

The more one works, the more willing one is to work.

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.

Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.

Cultivate the habit of thinking ahead, and of anticipating the necessary and immediate consequences of all your actions.... Likewise in your pleasures, ask yourself what such and such an amusement leads to, as it is essential to have an objective in everything you do. Any pastime that contributes nothing to bodily strength or to mental alertness is a totally ridiculous, not to say, idiotic, pleasure.

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom of things. Any thing half done, or half known, is in my mind, neither done nor known at all. Nay, worse, for it often misleads.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

You must be respectful and assenting, but without being servile and abject. You must be frank, but without indiscretion, and close, without being costive. You must keep up dignity of character, without the least pride of birth, or rank. You must be gay, within all the bounds of decency and respect; and grave, without the affectation of wisdom, which does not become the age of twenty. You must be essentially secret, without being dark and mysterious. You must be firm, and even bold, but with great seeming modesty.

Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.

If you have wit, use it to please and not to hurt: you may shine like the sun in the temperate zones without scorching.

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.

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition (or whatever is their prevailing passion) on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least.

Mind not only what people say, but how they say it; and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth by your eyes than by your ears. People can say what they will, but they cannot look just as they will; and their looks frequently (reveal) what their words are calculated to conceal.

Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle of every man who hath either religion, honour, or prudence. Thosewho violate it, may be cunning, but they are not able. Lies and perfidy are the refuge of fools and cowards.

Without any extraordinary effort of genius, I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose, that men were better, braver, or wiser, fifteen hundred or three thousand years ago, than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

You must labour to acquire that great and uncommon talent of hating with good breeding, and loving with prudence; to make no quarrel irreconcilable by silly and unnecessary indications of anger; and no friendship dangerous, in care it breaks, by a wanton, indiscreet, and unreserved confidence.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

It is hard to say which is the greatest fool: he who tells the whole truth, or he who tells no truth at all. Character is as necessary in business as in trade. No man can deceive often in either.

Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.

In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

Let it be your maxim through life, to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the information of others.

A man's fortune is frequently decided by his first address. If pleasing, others at once conclude he has merit; but if ungraceful, they decide against him.

There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing once; but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time.

Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.

People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority.

Vulgarism in language is the distinguishing characteristic of bad company, and a bad education. A man of fashion avoids nothing with more care than that. Proverbial expressions, and trite sayings, are the flowers of the rhetoric of vulgar man.

An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions. He is neither hot nor timid.

One should always think of what one is about; when one is learning, one should not think of play; and when one is at play, one should not think of learning.

Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company; this being one of the few cases in which people do not care to be treated, every one being fully convinced that he has wherewithal to pay.

An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

Almost all men are born with every passion to some extent, but there is hardly a man who has not a dominant passion to which the others are subordinate. Discover this governing passion in every individual; and when you have found the master passion of a man, remember never to trust to him where that passion is concerned.

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it.

To take a wife merely as an agreeable and rational companion, will commonly be found to be a grand mistake.

It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former is never forgiven, but the later is sometimes forgotten.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Smooth your way to the head through the heart. The way of reason is a good one: but it is commonly something longer, and perhapsnot so sure.

I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

An honest man may really love a pretty girl, but only an idiot marries her merely because she is pretty.

Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.

Remember that the wit, humour, and jokes of most mixed companies are local. They thrive in that particular soil, but will not often bear transplanting.

Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever. It implies a discovery of weakness, which we are more careful to conceal than a crime. Many a man will confess his crimes to a friend; but I never knew a man that would tell his silly weaknesses to his most intimate one.

Women are all so far Machiavellians that they are never either good or bad by halves; their passions are too strong, and their reason too weak, to do anything with moderation.

There will never be a better time to start quitting smoking than today

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer, or, may you rather die before you cease to be fit to live than after!

Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word.

I recommend to you to take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of themselves. I am very sure, that many people lose two or three hours every day, by not taking care of the minutes.

Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company; it should only be treated among a very few people of learning, for mutual instruction. It is too awful and respectable a subject to become a familiar one.

Women's beauty, like men's wit, is generally fatal to the owners.

Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.

Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.

Women, then, are only children of a larger growth

No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.

The talent of insinuation is more useful than that of persuasion, as everybody is open to insinuation, but scarce any to persuasion.

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

I can hardly bring myself to caution you against drinking, because I am persuaded that I am writing to a rational creature, a gentleman, and not to a swine. However, that you may not be insensibly drawn into that beastly custom of even sober drinking and sipping, as the sots call it, I advise you to be of no club whatsoever.

Nothing sharpens the arrow of sarcasm so keenly as the courtesy that polishes it; no reproach is like that we clothe with a smile and present with a bow.

Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people's weaknesses and infirmities, for the sake either of diverting the company, or of showing your own superiority. You may get the laugh on your side by it for the present; but you will make enemies by it for ever; and even those who laugh with you then, will, upon reflection, fear, and consequently hate you.

If a man, notoriously and designedly, insults and affronts you, knock him down; but if he only injures you, your best revenge is to be extremely civil to him in your outward behaviour, though at the same time you counterwork him, and return him the compliment, perhaps with interest.

A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

All I desire for my own burial, is not to be buried alive; but how or where, I think, must be entirely indifferent to every rational creature.

Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.

Second-rate knowledge, and middling talents, carry a man farther at courts, and in the busy part of the world, than superior knowledge and shining parts.

Speak of the moderns without contempt and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their age

Gold and silver are but merchandise, as well as cloth or linen; and that nation that buys the least, and sells the most, must always have the most money.

Firmness of purpose is one of the best instruments of success.

I have seen many people, who while you are speaking to them, instead, of looking at, and attending to you, fix their eyes upon the ceiling, or some other part of the room, look out of the window, play with a dog, twirl their snuff-box, or pick their nose. Nothing discovers a little, futile, frivolous mind more than this, and nothing is so offensively ill-bred.

When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.

To please people is a great step towards persuading them.

A man who cannot command his temper, his attention, and his countenance should not think of being a man of business.

The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings to judge.

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

Few people do business well, who do nothing else.

A judicious reticence is hard to learn, but it is one of the great lessons of life.

Silence and reserve suggest latent power. What some men think has more effect than what others say.

I would rather have a young fellow too much than too little dressed; the excess on that side will wear off, with a little age and reflection; but if he is negligent at twenty, he will be a sloven at forty, and stink at fifty years old. Dress yourself fine where others are fine, and plain where others are plain; but take care always that your clothes are well made and fit you, for otherwise they will give you a very awkward air.

Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.

Seek always for the best words and the happiest expression you can find.

The power of applying attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of superior genius.

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

If you have an hour, will you not improve that hour, instead of idling it away?

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.

Women especially as to be talked to as below men, and above children.

Wear your knowledge like your watch - in you pocket - and don't pull it out just for show.

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.

Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Remember, as long as you live, that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honor unwounded.

You must be respectable, if you will be respected.

I have, by long experience, found women to be like Telephus's spear: if one end kills, the other cures.

Fear invites danger; concealed cowards insult known ones.

Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it, genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.

Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.

In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.

Distrust those who love you extremely upon a slight acquaintance, and without any visible reason.

Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.