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Lord Chesterfield Quotes - Page 14

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So much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies, that every man is more the man of the day than a regular and consequential character.

So much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies, that every man is more the man of the day than a regular and consequential character.

Lord Chesterfield
Character, Men, Personality
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.207

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

Lord Chesterfield
Self, Ego, Veils
Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.293

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.

Lord Chesterfield
Dance, Silly, People

Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.

Lord Chesterfield
Vices, Cottages, Court
Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.324

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.

Lord Chesterfield
Inspirational, Funny, Fathers Day
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.239, Oxford University Press

In nature the most violent passions are silent; in tragedy they must speak and speak with dignity too.

Lord Chesterfield
Passion, Tragedy, Dignity
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.249, Oxford University Press

I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive.

Lord Chesterfield
Suicide, Men, Looks
Lord Chesterfield (2008). “The Modern Chesterfield”, p.233, Wildside Press LLC

Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, asit is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.

Lord Chesterfield
Country, Men, Different

Real friendship is a slow grower.

Lord Chesterfield
Real, Real Friends, Real Friendship
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.54, Oxford University Press

A gentleman is often seen, but very seldom heard to laugh.

Lord Chesterfield
Laughing, Gentleman, Heard
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.234, Oxford University Press

Ceremony is necessary in Courts, as the outwork and defense of manners.

Lord Chesterfield
Defense, Courtesy, Manners
"The Modern Chesterfield".

The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.

Lord Chesterfield
Believe, Ignorance, Thinking
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.244

Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon; they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compassto direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel; for want of which, pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage.

Lord Chesterfield
Pain, Rocks, People
Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.89, OUP Oxford

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Lord Chesterfield
Imagination, Betrayed, Want
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.101, Oxford University Press

A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character, and to ruin his fortune; while wine and the pox content which shall soonest and most effectually destroy his constitution.

Lord Chesterfield
Drinking, Wine, Character

Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send them just what we should say to the persons if we were with them.

Lord Chesterfield
Letters, Easy, Natural

There never were, since the creation of the world, two cases exactly parallel.

Lord Chesterfield
Two, World, Earth
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.66, Oxford University Press

I could wish there were a treaty made between the French and the English theatres, in which both parties should make considerableconcessions. The English ought to give up their notorious violations of the unities, and all their massacres, racks, dead bodies, and mangled carcasses, which they so frequently exhibit upon their stage. The French should engage to have more action, and less declamation, and not to cram and to crowd things together to almost a degree of impossibility from a too scrupulous adherence to the unities.

Lord Chesterfield
Giving Up, Party, Unity
Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.248, Oxford Paperbacks

Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as singular as I please, but you may not.

Lord Chesterfield
Retirement, Age, May
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.307, Oxford University Press

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

Lord Chesterfield
Temptation, Feelings, Age

Men will not believe because they will not broaden their minds.

Lord Chesterfield
Believe, Men, Mind

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

Lord Chesterfield
Men, People, Degrees
Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.184

There is a certain jargon, which, in French, I should call un Persiflage d'Affaires, that a foreign Minister ought to be perfectlymaster of, and may be used very advantageously at great entertainments, in mixed companies, and in all occasions where he must speak, and should say nothing. Well turned and well spoken, it seems to mean something, though in truth it means nothing. It is a kind of political badinage, which prevents or removes a thousand difficulties, to which a foreign Minister is exposed in mixed conversations.

Lord Chesterfield
Mean, Political, Jargon

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.

Lord Chesterfield
Mind, Glitter, Laziness
'Letters to his Son' (1774) 20 July 1749

The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run downby much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.

Lord Chesterfield
Running, Country, Hunting

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