Lord Chesterfield Quotes
|
|
|
There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time.
[Concentration]
|
|
|
|
To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.
|
|
|
|
To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.
|
|
|
|
True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love to be treated yourself.
[Politeness]
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
We are as often duped by diffidence as by confidence.
|
|
|
|
We are, in truth, more than a half of what we are by imitation.
[Imitation]
|
|
|
|
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket. - Do not pull it out merely to show that you have one. - If asked what o'clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.
[Learning]
|
|
|
|
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
[Deeds]
|
|
|
|
When a man is once in fashion, all he does is right.
[Fashion]
|
|
|
|
When a man seeks your advice he generally wants your praise.
[Advice]
|
|
|
|
When I reflect upon what I have seen, have heard, and have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry and bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality; and I look on what has passed as one of those wild dreams which opium occasions, and I by no means wish to repeat the nauseous dose for the sake of the fugitive illusion.
[Life]
|
|
|
|
When one is learning, one should not think of play; and when one is at play, one should not think of learning.
[Concentration]
|
|
|
|
Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. - Haste and hurry are very different things.
[Haste]
|
|
|
|
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.
|
|
|
|
Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.
[Capitalism]
|
|
|
|
You must look into people as well as at them.
[Character]
|
|
|
|
Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience, which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and ineffective.
[Youth]
|
|
|
|
|