Quotes from Lord Chesterfield

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

You must embrace the man you hate, if you cannot be justified in knocking him down.

Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read.

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

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.

Men will not believe because they will not broaden their minds.

Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he generally converses with are.

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.

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

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

Experience only can teach men not to prefer what strikes them for the present moment, to what will have much greater weight with the them hereafter.

A cheerful, easy, open countenance will make fools think you a good-natured man, and make designing men think you an undesigning one.

If originally it was not good for a man to be alone, it is much worse for a sick man to be so; he thinks too much of his distemper, and magnifies it.

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

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.

I love every-day senses, every-day wit and entertainment; a man who is only good on holidays, is good for very little.

The manner of a vulgar man has freedom without ease, and the manner of a gentleman has ease without freedom.

A man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry.

There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest: but there is seldom one in which a man should tell it all.

The greatest powers cannot injure a man's character whose reputation is unblemished among his party.

So much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies, that every man is more the man of the day than a regular and consequential character.

Cardinal Mazarin was a great knave, but no great man; much more cunning than able; scandalously false and dirtily greedy.

An ignorant man is insignificant and contemptible; nobody cares for his company, and he can just be said to live, and that is all.

A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally have nothing told him.