Lord Chesterfield Quotes - Page 11

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• I always put these pert jackanapeses out of countenance by looking extremely grave when they expect that I should laugh at their pleasantries; and by saying Well, and so?--as if they had not done, and that the sting were still to come. This disconcerts them, as they have no resources in themselves, and have but one set of jokes to live upon.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Laughing, Done, Resources

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• We are really so prejudiced by our educations, that, as the ancients deified their heroes, we deify their madmen.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Hero, Prejudice, Madmen

  Lord Chesterfield (2008). “The Modern Chesterfield”, p.76, Wildside Press LLC

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• The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy. Take common sense quantum sufficit; add a little application to the rules and orders of the House [of Commons], throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness and elegancy of style. Take it for granted that by far the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Order, Light, Common Sense

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.296, Oxford University Press

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• Dispatch is the soul of business.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Business, Soul

  Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, February 5, 1750.

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• Indifference is commonly the mother of discretion.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Mother, Wisdom, Indifference

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• Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can;but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Government, Giving, Tone

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.346, Oxford University Press

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• Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value: but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of their luster: and even polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Inspirational Life, People, Gold

  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.150

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• A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Wise, Wisdom, Maturity

  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.469

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• Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Beautiful, Women, Understanding

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.92, Oxford University Press

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• To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Mean, Vanity, Principles

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• Women have, in general, but ne object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Beauty, Flattery, Gross

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.60, Oxford University Press

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• 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.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Understanding, Culture

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• Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Character, Cleanliness, Clean

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.197, Oxford University Press

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• Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Turns, Justify, Prettiness

  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.498

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• A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and when they say, Have not you heard of such a thing? to answer No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Ignorance, Knowledge, People

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

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• In the course of the world, a man must very often put on an easy, frank countenance, upon very disagreeable occasions; he must seem pleased, when he is very much otherwise; he must be able to accost and receive with smiles, those whom he would much rather meet with swords.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Patience, Men, Tolerance

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.298, OUP Oxford

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• Cottages have them (falsehood and dissimulation) as well as courts, only with worse manners.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Cottages, Manners, Court

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• How often should a woman be pregnant? Continually, or hardly ever? Or must there be a certain number of pregnancy anniversaries established by fashion? What do you, at the age of forty-three, have to say on the subject? Is it a fact that the laws of nature, or of the country, or of propriety, have ordained this time of life for sterility?

  Lord Chesterfield

  Country, Fashion, Pregnancy

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• Many people come into company full of what they intend to say in it themselves, without the least regard to others; and thus charged up to the muzzle are resolved to let it off at any rate.

  Lord Chesterfield

  People, Muzzle, Egotism

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• A man of the best parts and greatest learning, if he does not know the world by his own experience and observation, will be very absurd, and consequently very unwelcome in company. He may say very good things; but they will be probably so ill-timed, misplaced, or improperly addressed, that he had much better hold his tongue.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Doe, World

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• It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Laughter, Men, Shining

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• 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.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Beautiful, Thinking, Grace

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.92, Oxford University Press

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• 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.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Running, Attention, Done

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.175, OUP Oxford

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• Wise people may say what they will, but one passion is never cured by another.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Wise, Wisdom, Passion

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• Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Character, Gambling, Play

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.377, Oxford Paperbacks

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