Quotes By Lord Chesterfield

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.

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

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

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

Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.

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.

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

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

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

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

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.

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.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

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

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.

In those days he was wiser than he is now - he used frequently to take my advice.

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

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

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

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

I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes.

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

Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.

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

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet.

I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

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