Lord Chesterfield Quotes - Page 8

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• I am provoked at the contempt which most historians show for humanity in general; one would think by them, that the whole human species consisted but of about a hundred and fifty people, called and dignified (commonly very undeservedly too) by the titles of Emperors, Kings, Popes, Generals, and Ministers.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Kings, Thinking, People

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• Style is the dress of thoughts, and let them be ever so just.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Clothes, Style

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.176, Oxford University Press

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• Artichoke: That vegetable of which one has more at the finish than at the start of dinner.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Food, Vegetables, Cooking

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• 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.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Funny, Humor, Soil

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.109, Oxford University Press

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• Women of fashion and character--I do not mean absolutely unblemished--are a necessary ingredient in the composition of good company; the attention which they require, and which is always paid them by well-bred men, keeps up politeness, and gives a habit of good-breeding; whereas men, when they live together without the lenitive of women in company, are apt to grow careless, negligent, and rough among one another.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Character, Mean

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• Words are the dress of thoughts; which should no more be presented in rags, tatters, and dirt than your person should.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Rags, Dresses, Dirt

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.200, Oxford University Press

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• A man who owes a little can clear it off in a very little time, and, if he is a prudent man, will; whereas a man, who by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Long, Despair

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.203

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• At any age we must cherish illusions, consolatory or merely pleasant; in youth, they are omnipresent; in old age we must search for them, or even invent them. But with all that, boredom is their natural and inevitable accompaniment.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Boredom, Age, Youth

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• Remember, that when I speak of pleasures I always mean the elegant pleasures of a rational being, and not the brutal ones of a swine. I mean la bonne chère, short of gluttony; wine, infinitely short of drunkenness; play, without the least gaming; and gallantry, without debauchery.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Wine, Mean, Play

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• Keep carefully not of all scrapes and quarrels. They lower a character extremely; and are particularly dangerous in France, wherea man is dishonoured by not resenting an affront, and utterly ruined by resenting it.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Character, Men, France

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• Whenever I go to an opera, I leave my sense and reason at the door with my half-guinea, and deliver myself up to my eyes and my ears.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Eye, Doors, Ears

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.250, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Writing, May, Speech

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.415, OUP Oxford

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• Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Hands, Order, People

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• Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Light, Sight, Vices

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.64, Oxford University Press

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• Most arts require long study and application, but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Art, Long, Desire

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• Many young people adopt pleasures for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name.... You mustallow that drunkenness, which is equally destructive to body and mind, is a fine pleasure. Gaming, that draws you into a thousand scraps, leaves you penniless, and gives you the air and manners of an outrageous madman, is another most exquisite pleasure, is it not? As to running after women, the consequences of that vice are only the loss of one's nose, the total destruction of health, and, not unfrequently, the being run through the body.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Running, Drinking, Loss

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• I have been too long acquainted with human nature to have great regard for human testimony; and a very great degree of probability, supported by various concurrent circumstances, conspiring in one point, will have much greater weight with me, than human testimony upon oath, or even upon honour; both of which I have frequently seen considerably warped by private views.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Truth, Views, Long

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.319, Oxford Paperbacks

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• One of the greatest difficulties in civil war is, that more art is required to know what should be concealed from our friends, than what ought to be done against our enemies.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Friends, Art, War

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.628

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• Though we cannot totally change our nature, we may in great measure correct it by reflection and philosophy; and some philosophy is a very necessary companion in this world, where, even to the most fortunate, the chances are greatly against happiness.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Philosophy, Reflection, Thoughtful

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.333, Oxford University Press

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• Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress them, and, in truth, our own private interest concurs in it, as it is making ourselves so many friends, instead of so many enemies.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Friends, Depressing, People

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.199

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• People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.

  Lord Chesterfield

  People, Bears, Civility

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.121

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• Always make the best of the best, and never make bad worse.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Inspirational, Children, Best Of The Best

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• There is not a more prudent maxim, than to live with one's enemies as if they may one day become one's friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or later, in the vicissitudes of political affairs.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Political, Enemy, One Day

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• Real merit of any kind cannot long be concealed; it will be discovered, and nothing can depreciate it but a man exhibiting it himself. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Real, Men, Discovery

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• Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way for merit, that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties...

  Lord Chesterfield

  White, Way, Merit

  "Manners and speech or maxims extracted from Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1884.

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