People Quotes by Lord Chesterfield

Few people do business well who do nothing else

— Lord Chesterfield

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

— Lord Chesterfield

People hate who makes you feel one's inferiority.

— Lord Chesterfield

To please people is a great step towards persuading them.

— Lord Chesterfield

Love has been not unaptly compared to the small-pox, which most people have sooner or later.

— Lord Chesterfield

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

— Lord Chesterfield

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

— Lord Chesterfield

People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.

— Lord Chesterfield

If you will please people, you must please them in their own way; and as you cannot make them what they should…

— Lord Chesterfield

Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear…

— Lord Chesterfield

The best way to compel weak-minded people to adopt our opinion, is to frighten them from all others, by magnifying their danger.

— Lord Chesterfield

The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings…

— Lord Chesterfield

It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater…

— Lord Chesterfield

Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.

— Lord Chesterfield

Cautiously avoid speaking of the domestic affairs either of yourself, or of other people. Yours are nothing to them but tedious gossip;…

— Lord Chesterfield

The vulgar only laugh, but never smile; whereas well-bred people often smile, but seldom laugh.

— Lord Chesterfield

You should not only have attention to everything, but a quickness of attention, so as to observe at once all the people…

— Lord Chesterfield

People will, in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you upon that which they have of your…

— Lord Chesterfield

The New Year is the season in which custom seems more particularly to authorize civil and harmless lies, under the name of…

— Lord Chesterfield

Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company; it should only be treated among a very few…

— Lord Chesterfield

Dancing is, in itself, a very trifling and silly thing: but it is one of those established follies to which people of…

— Lord Chesterfield

Take rather than give the tone to the company you are in. If you have parts you will show them more or…

— Lord Chesterfield

This is the day when people reciprocally offer, and receive, the kindest and the warmest wishes, though, in general, without meaning them…

— Lord Chesterfield

Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value: but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of…

— Lord Chesterfield

Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people's weaknesses and infirmities, for the…

— Lord Chesterfield

Great merit or great failings will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will…

— Lord Chesterfield

Many young people adopt pleasures for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name… You…

— Lord Chesterfield

If you will please people, you must please them in their own way.

— Lord Chesterfield

Wise people may say what they will, but one passion is never cured by another.

— Lord Chesterfield

Two people cannot be alone together for upwards of half an hour without one emerging as the superior.

— Lord Chesterfield

Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and depend upon it, you will catch their judgments, such as…

— Lord Chesterfield

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

— Lord Chesterfield

I am provoked at the contempt which most historians show for humanity in general; one would think by them, that the whole…

— Lord Chesterfield

Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep company with people above you… Do not mistake, when I say company above you,…

— Lord Chesterfield

A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant…

— Lord Chesterfield

Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress…

— Lord Chesterfield

The law before us, my lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be…

— Lord Chesterfield

Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see…

— Lord Chesterfield

Mind not only what people say, but how they say it; and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth…

— Lord Chesterfield

There are people who indulge themselves in a sort of lying, which they reckon innocent, and which in one sense is so;…

— Lord Chesterfield