Quotes from Lord Chesterfield

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.

Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word.

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

He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.

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

Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.

Arbitrary power has seldom... been introduced in any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step.

Silence and reserve suggest latent power. What some men think has more effect than what others say.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.

Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in an advanced age; and if we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old.

Remember that whatever knowledge you do not solidly lay the foundation of before you are eighteen, you will never be master of while you breathe.

Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance.

Learning is acquired by reading books; much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various editions of them.

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.

Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct--never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.

The vulgar only laugh, but never smile; whereas well-bred people often smile, but seldom laugh.

Nothing sharpens the arrow of sarcasm so keenly as the courtesy that polishes it; no reproach is like that we clothe with a smile and present with a bow.

Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.

Prepare yourself for the world, as athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.

Firmness of purpose is one of the best instruments of success.

Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do from different lights.

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.