The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. Agustin Marissa...
LORD CHESTERFIELD If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, abs...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimatel...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleas...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story tha...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and you...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wear your learning like a watch and do not pull it out merely to show you have it. If you are asked ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD One should always think of what one is about: when one is learning, one should not think of play: an...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watc...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob, who are only pleased with silly things; for true Wit or good ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldo...
LORD CHESTERFIELD In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
LORD CHESTERFIELD In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torm...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Men will not believe because they will not broaden their minds.
LORD CHESTERFIELD No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do busine...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instrument...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Character must be kept bright as well as clean.
LORD CHESTERFIELD You must look into people, as well as at them.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Be your character what it will, it will be known; and nobody will take it upon your word.
LORD CHESTERFIELD The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.
LORD CHESTERFIELD There is a sort of veteran woman of condition, who, having lived always in the grand monde, and havi...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Great merit, or great failings, will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions,...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, an...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
LORD CHESTERFIELD History is but a confused heap of facts.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.
LORD CHESTERFIELD The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and t...
LORD CHESTERFIELD When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.
LORD CHESTERFIELD If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of fo...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever. It implies a disco...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the wo...
LORD CHESTERFIELD In the case of scandal, as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Style is the dress of thoughts; and let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and v...
LORD CHESTERFIELD To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.
LORD CHESTERFIELD It is commonly said that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Lord Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years, but we don't choose to have it known.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom m...
LORD CHESTERFIELD If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.
LORD CHESTERFIELD He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
LORD CHESTERFIELD The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's s...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, t...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.
LORD CHESTERFIELD An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.
LORD CHESTERFIELD The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, t...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A constant smirk upon the face, and a whiffing activity of the body, are strong indications of futil...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score...
LORD CHESTERFIELD I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Whoever is admitted or sought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and man...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning...
LORD CHESTERFIELD I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetit...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.
LORD CHESTERFIELD As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The scholar without good breeding is a nitpicker; the philosopher a cynic; the soldier a brute and e...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake o...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always th...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the t...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Take the tone of the company you are in.
LORD CHESTERFIELD For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the de...
LORD CHESTERFIELD If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition (or whatever is their prevailing passion...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sobe...
LORD CHESTERFIELD A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to Dispatch than Method.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wrongs are often forgiven; contempt never
LORD CHESTERFIELD Ridicule is the best test of truth
LORD CHESTERFIELD Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be plea...
LORD CHESTERFIELD An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. - Letter to his son, October 9, 1746.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Nature has hardly formed a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time: snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and depend upon it, you will catch ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Idleness is the only refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools
LORD CHESTERFIELD Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and kee...
LORD CHESTERFIELD [Common sense] is the best sense I know of.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Most people enjoy the inferiority of their friends.
LORD CHESTERFIELD There is hardly anybody good for everything, and there is scarcely anybody who is absolutely good fo...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.
LORD CHESTERFIELD I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.
LORD CHESTERFIELD The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, an...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom of thin...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in the closet.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in advanced age, and if we do no...
LORD CHESTERFIELD If you will please people, you must please them in your own way.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever sed...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The more one works, the more willing one is to work.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD An injury is much sooner forgiven than an insult
LORD CHESTERFIELD Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Whenever I go to an opera, I leave my sense and reason at the door with my half guinea, and deliver ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, mak...
LORD CHESTERFIELD If you are not in fashion, you are nobody. - "Letter to his son", April 30, 1750.
LORD CHESTERFIELD History is a confused heap of facts.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wear your learning, like a watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it, merely ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Look in the face of the person to whom you are speaking if you wish to know his real sentiments, for...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known.
LORD CHESTERFIELD In those days he was wiser than he is now - he used frequently to take my advice.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all
LORD CHESTERFIELD Do as you would be done by is the surest method of pleasing
LORD CHESTERFIELD A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones
LORD CHESTERFIELD Those who travel heedlessly from place to place, observing only their distance from each other, and ...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it merely...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Style is the dress of thoughts
LORD CHESTERFIELD Words are the dress of thoughts; which should no more be presented in rags, tatters, and dirt than y...
LORD CHESTERFIELD You must look into people, as well as at them
LORD CHESTERFIELD No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degr...
LORD CHESTERFIELD The man who cannot believe his senses, and the man, who cannot believe in anything else, are both in...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is
LORD CHESTERFIELD Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes
LORD CHESTERFIELD Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least.
LORD CHESTERFIELD No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today
LORD CHESTERFIELD Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible re...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Women, and young men, are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been tr...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Nature has hardly formed a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person
LORD CHESTERFIELD A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness its poison
LORD CHESTERFIELD Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and you...
LORD CHESTERFIELD Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the wo...
LORD CHESTERFIELD What men call gallantry, and gods adultery, is much more common where the climate's sultry.
LORD CHESTERFIELD Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it
LORD CHESTERFIELD Few people do business well who do nothing else
LORD CHESTERFIELD When a man wants your advice he generally wants your praise
LORD CHESTERFIELD Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of f...
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD A light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning have often made a hero of the same man who ...
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of ...
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Due attention to the inside of books, and due contempt for the outside, is the proper relation betwe...
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Take the tone of the company you are in.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always want it the least.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Every woman is infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery, and every man by one sort or other...
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD A chapter of accidents.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Sacrifice to the Graces.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company.
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.
LORD BYRON Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.
LORD BYRON One of the nuisances of the ballot is that when the oracle has spoken you never know what it means.
LORD SALISBURY I cannot help thinking that the menace of Hell makes as many devils as the severe penal codes of inh...
LORD BYRON In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting.
LORD KELVIN What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom...
LORD BYRON There were exceptions, a couple of families that just plain didn't want to even think about it, ...
WALTER LORD You have to study the people and the ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.
WALTER LORD I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.
WALTER LORD It's a funny thing, but today the Titanic is probably much more - that is people are much more a...
WALTER LORD Someone once told me the one thread that runs through them all is a premium on personal courage - no...
WALTER LORD Events alone rarely provide much guide to the future.
WALTER LORD I look for something that is highly unusual, involving ordinary people caught in extraordinary situa...
WALTER LORD Brilliantly lit from stem to stern, she looked like a sagging birthday cake.
WALTER LORD What you have, what you are - your looks, your personality, your way of thinking - is unique. No one...
JACK LORD The introduction of religious passion into politics is the end of honest politics, and the introduct...
LORD HAILSHAM Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.
LORD BYRON Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
LORD BYRON Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the ...
LORD BYRON History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
LORD ACTON There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? ...
LORD BYRON For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave not...
LORD BYRON But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which...
LORD BYRON Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.
LORD BYRON Adversity is the first path to truth.
LORD BYRON