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Lord Chesterfield Quotes - Page 8

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If you love music hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light; brings him

If you love music hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light; brings him into a great deal of bad company; and takes up a great deal of time, which might be much better employed.

Lord Chesterfield
Music, Play, Light

People will, in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you upon that which they have of your friends; and there is a Spanish proverb which says vry justly, 'Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are.'

Lord Chesterfield
Friendship, People, Degrees
Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.55, Oxford Paperbacks

Not to perceive the little weaknesses and the idle but innocent affectations of the company may be allowable as a sort of polite duty. The company will be pleased with you if you do, and most probably will not be reformed by you if you do not.

Lord Chesterfield
Weakness, May, Littles

We are, in truth, more than half what we are by imitation.

Lord Chesterfield
Half, Imitation
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.321

Sexual intercourse is a grossly overrated pastime; the position is undignified, the pleasure momentary and the consequences damnable.

Lord Chesterfield
Funny, Pleasure, Pastime

Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.

Lord Chesterfield
Light, Sight, Vices
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.64, Oxford University Press

Health ... is the first and greatest of all blessings.

Lord Chesterfield
Blessing, Firsts
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.363, Oxford University Press

The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse; always harder.

Lord Chesterfield
Heart, Age, Knaves
"The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author".

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.

Lord Chesterfield
Book, Reading, Cat

I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.

Lord Chesterfield
Lying, Mean, Vanity
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.156

Fear manifested invites danger.

Lord Chesterfield
Anticipation, Danger, Invites

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

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

Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.

Lord Chesterfield
People, Secret, Dexterity
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.483

Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man.

Lord Chesterfield
Horse, Laughter, Fun
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.140, Oxford University Press

Six, or at most seven, hours' sleep is, for a constancy, as much as you or anybody else can want; more is only laziness and dozing, and is, I am persuaded, both unwholesome and stupefying.

Lord Chesterfield
Sleep, Dozing, Laziness
"Lord Chesterfield's Advice to His Son, on Men and Manners: Or, A New System of Education". Book by Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield, 1815.

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therefore one seldom does it at all.

Lord Chesterfield
Doe, Procrastinating, Can Do
"Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1774.

Many young people adopt pleasures for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name.... You mustallow that drunkenness, which is equally destructive to body and mind, is a fine pleasure. Gaming, that draws you into a thousand scraps, leaves you penniless, and gives you the air and manners of an outrageous madman, is another most exquisite pleasure, is it not? As to running after women, the consequences of that vice are only the loss of one's nose, the total destruction of health, and, not unfrequently, the being run through the body.

Lord Chesterfield
Running, Drinking, Loss

There is nothing so necessary, but at the same time there is nothing more difficult (I know it by experience) for you young fellows, than to know how to behave yourselves prudently towards those whom you do not like. Your passions are warm, and your heads are light; you hate all those who oppose your views, either of ambition or love; and a rival, in either, is almost a synonymous term for any enemy.

Lord Chesterfield
Hate, Ambition, Passion

No woman ever yet either reasoned or acted long together consequentially; but some little thing, some love, some resentment, somepresent momentary interest, some supposed slight, or some humour, always breaks in upon, and oversets their most prudent resolutions and schemes.

Lord Chesterfield
Women, Long, Together
Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.356

I wish... that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it.

Lord Chesterfield
Giving, Advice, Wish

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

Lord Chesterfield
Ambition, Pride, Your Side
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.136

It may be objected, that I am now recommending dissimulation to you; I both own and justify it. It has been long said: Qui nescitdissimular nescit regnare: I go still farther, and say, that without some dissimulation, no business can be carried on at all.

Lord Chesterfield
Lying, Long, Deceit

Every man is to be had one way or another and every woman almost anyway.

Lord Chesterfield
Men, Dating, Way
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.345

The scholar without good breeding is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic.

Lord Chesterfield
Philosophy, Pedants, Philosopher
Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.57, Oxford University Press

Study the heart and the mind of man, and begin with your own. Meditation and reflection must lay the foundation of that knowledge, but experience and practice must, and alone can, complete it.

Lord Chesterfield
Heart, Reflection, Men
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.413

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