Lord Chesterfield

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

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

Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it, genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.

Speak of the moderns without contempt and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their age

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.

Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.

Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way in the world, without them it is like a great rough diamond, very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but most prized when polished.

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.

Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.

Dancing is, in itself, a very trifling and silly thing: but it is one of those established follies to which people of sense are sometimes obliged to conform; and then they should be able to do it well. And though I would not have you a dancer, yet, when you do dance, I would have you dance well, as I would have you do everything you do well.

I knew a gentleman who was so good a manager of his time that he would not even lose that small portion of it which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets in those moments.

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

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.

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

In the case of scandal, as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief.

Ridicule is the best test of truth.

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.

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

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.