Quotes from Lord Chesterfield

Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics.

Women especially as to be talked to as below men, and above children.

Women are all so far Machiavellians that they are never either good or bad by halves; their passions are too strong, and their reason too weak, to do anything with moderation.

Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

Women's beauty, like men's wit, is generally fatal to the owners.

I have, by long experience, found women to be like Telephus's spear: if one end kills, the other cures.

The company of women of fashion will improve your manners, though not your understanding; and that complaisance and politeness, which are so useful in men's company, can only be acquired in women's.

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

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.

Statesmen and beauties are very rarely sensible of the gradations of their decay.

I am in the pitiable situation of feeling all the force of temptation without having the strength to succumb to it.

The more one works, the more willing one is to work.

Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.

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

A gentleman has ease without familiarity, is respectful without meanness; genteel without affectation, insinuating without seeming art.

Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.

In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.

Half the business is done, when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact it.

Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method.

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness its poison

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

Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others.