Quotes by Chesterfield, Lord

"Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least."

Chesterfield, Lord on advice
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"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."

Chesterfield, Lord on advice   

"The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older."

Chesterfield, Lord on age and aging   

"Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so."

Chesterfield, Lord on discretion   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on divorce   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on dress   

"The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it."

Chesterfield, Lord on dress   

"Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults."

Chesterfield, Lord on egotism   

"Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, the steadiness of your resentment."

Chesterfield, Lord on enemies
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"There is a sort of veteran woman of condition, who, having lived always in the grand monde, and having possibly had some gallantries, together with the experience of five and twenty or thirty years, form a young fellow better than all the rules that can be given him. Wherever you go, make some of those women your friends; which a very little matter will do. Ask their advice, tell them your doubts or difficulties as to your behavior; but take great care not to drop one word of their experience; for experience implies age, and the suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgives."

Chesterfield, Lord on experience   

"Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed."

Chesterfield, Lord on failure   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on fashion   

"As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless."

Chesterfield, Lord on fathers   

"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."

Chesterfield, Lord on firmness   

"Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces: for every woman who is not absolutely ugly, thinks herself handsome."

Chesterfield, Lord on flattery   

"Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of forgiving their enemies."

Chesterfield, Lord on forgiveness
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"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."

Chesterfield, Lord on forgiveness   

"Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends."

Chesterfield, Lord on friends and friendship
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"Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man."

Chesterfield, Lord on fun   

"A constant smirk upon the face, and a whiffing activity of the body, are strong indications of futility."

Chesterfield, Lord on futility   

"The scholar without good breeding is a nitpicker; the philosopher a cynic; the soldier a brute and everyone else disagreeable."

Chesterfield, Lord on ancestry   

"Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others."

Chesterfield, Lord on ancestry
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"To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination."

Chesterfield, Lord on anecdotes   

"Great merit, or great failings, will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked in the general run of the world."

Chesterfield, Lord on greatness   

"Whoever is admitted or sought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and manners, is never respected there, but only made use of. We will have such-a-one, for he sings prettily; we will invite such-a-one to a ball, for he dances well; we will have such-a-one at supper, for he is always joking and laughing; we will ask another because he plays deep at all games, or because he can drink a great deal. These are all vilifying distinctions, mortifying preferences, and exclude all ideas of esteem and regard. Whoever is had (as it is called) in company for the sake of any one thing singly, is singly that thing, and will never be considered in any other light; consequently never respected, let his merits be what they will."

Chesterfield, Lord on guests   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on art   

"I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward."

Chesterfield, Lord on heroes and heroism   

"History is but a confused heap of facts."

Chesterfield, Lord on history and historians   

"I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive."

Chesterfield, Lord on indolence   

"Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends."

Chesterfield, Lord on inferiority   

"There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult."

Chesterfield, Lord on injury   

"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."

Chesterfield, Lord on intimacy   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on knowledge   

"Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet."

Chesterfield, Lord on knowledge   

"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 facets of them."

Chesterfield, Lord on knowledge   

"Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners."

Chesterfield, Lord on laughter   

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"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."

Chesterfield, Lord on laughter   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on laughter   

"Wear your learning like a watch and do not pull it out merely to show you have it. If you are asked for the time, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly unasked."

Chesterfield, Lord on learning
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"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 one's learning."

Chesterfield, Lord on learning