Love has been not unaptly compared to the small-pox, which most people have sooner or later. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Little secrets are commonly told again, but great ones generally kept. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally have nothing told him. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Seek always for the best words and the happiest expression you can find. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
I love every-day senses, every-day wit and entertainment; a man who is only good on holidays, is good for very little. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition (or whatever is their prevailing passion) on your side, you need not… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Our self-love is mortified, when we think our opinions, and even our tastes, customs, and dresses, either arraigned or condemned; as, on… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
A gentleman has ease without familiarity, is respectful without meanness; genteel without affectation, insinuating without seeming art. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
There is nothing so necessary, but at the same time there is nothing more difficult (I know it by experience) for you… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
You must labour to acquire that great and uncommon talent of hating with good breeding, and loving with prudence; to make no… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
If you wish particularly to gain the good graces and affection of certain people, men or women, try to discover their most… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Men have various subjects in which they may excel, or at least would be thought to excel, and though they love to… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
No woman ever yet either reasoned or acted long together consequentially; but some little thing, some love, some resentment, somepresent momentary interest,… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Of those who really love their sons, few know how to do it. Some spoil them when they are young, and then… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
In friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often the dupe of the heart. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Half the business is done, when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
An honest man may really love a pretty girl, but only an idiot marries her merely because she is pretty. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Cultivate the habit of thinking ahead, and of anticipating the necessary and immediate consequences of all your actions… Likewise in your pleasures, ask yourself… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
No woman ever yet either reasoned or acted long together consequentially; but some little thing, some love, some resentment, somepresent momentary interest, some supposed… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
I am in the pitiable situation of feeling all the force of temptation without having the strength to succumb to it. — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Mankind is made up of inconsistencies, and no man acts invariably up to his predominant character. The wisest man sometimes acts weakly, and the… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Compliments of congratulation are always kindly taken, and cost nothing but pen, ink and paper. I consider them as draughts upon good breeding, where… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
The insolent civility of a proud man is, if possible, more shocking than his rudeness could be; because he shows you, by his manner,… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
“Secret thoughts and an open countenance will take you safely the world over” — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value: but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of their luster:… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in an advanced age; and if we do not plant it while young,… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
It is commonly said that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is not just. I… — Lord Chesterfield Copy Share Image
