Top 25 Quotes by Lord Chesterfield of 433 - Page 10

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

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

Men, Gentleman, Ease

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.

Lord Chesterfield

Inspirational Life, People, Gold

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.150

Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can;but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.

Lord Chesterfield

Government, Giving, Tone

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.346, Oxford University Press

A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

Lord Chesterfield

Wise, Wisdom, Maturity

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.469

Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings.

Lord Chesterfield

Beautiful, Women, Understanding

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.92, Oxford University Press

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

Lord Chesterfield

Beauty, Flattery, Gross

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.60, Oxford University Press

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

Lord Chesterfield

Passion, Men, Vanity

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.189, Oxford University Press

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet.

Lord Chesterfield

Men, Understanding, Culture

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

Lord Chesterfield

Character, Cleanliness, Clean

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.197, Oxford University Press

Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.

Lord Chesterfield

Turns, Justify, Prettiness

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.498

A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and when they say, Have not you heard of such a thing? to answer No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.

Lord Chesterfield

Ignorance, Knowledge, People

"Manners and speech or maxims extracted from Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1884.

In the course of the world, a man must very often put on an easy, frank countenance, upon very disagreeable occasions; he must seem pleased, when he is very much otherwise; he must be able to accost and receive with smiles, those whom he would much rather meet with swords.

Lord Chesterfield

Patience, Men, Tolerance

Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.298, OUP Oxford

Cottages have them (falsehood and dissimulation) as well as courts, only with worse manners.

Lord Chesterfield

Cottages, Manners, Court

Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress them, and, in truth, our own private interest concurs in it, as it is making ourselves so many friends, instead of so many enemies.

Lord Chesterfield

Friends, Depressing, People

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.199

It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon.

Lord Chesterfield

Laughter, Men, Shining

Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two--a proof of the decline of that country.

Lord Chesterfield

Music, Country, Art

When one is at play, one should not think of one's learning.

Lord Chesterfield

Thinking, Play, Should

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.12, Oxford University Press

Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces; for every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome.

Lord Chesterfield

Beautiful, Thinking, Grace

Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.92, Oxford University Press

Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.

Lord Chesterfield

Character, Gambling, Play

Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.377, Oxford Paperbacks

No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.

Lord Chesterfield

Business, Men, People

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.266

Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of humanactions.... Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert.... I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.

Lord Chesterfield

Pain, Vanity, Names

Either a good or a bad reputation outruns and gets before people wherever they go.

Lord Chesterfield

People, Reputation, Human Condition

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

Lord Chesterfield

Art, Gentleman, Ease

How often should a woman be pregnant? Continually, or hardly ever? Or must there be a certain number of pregnancy anniversaries established by fashion? What do you, at the age of forty-three, have to say on the subject? Is it a fact that the laws of nature, or of the country, or of propriety, have ordained this time of life for sterility?

Lord Chesterfield

Country, Fashion, Pregnancy

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.

Lord Chesterfield

Men, Order, Secret

"Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son".

Lord Chesterfield Quotes - Page 10

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