Widger's Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Lord Chesterfield

DEAR BOY: There is nothing which I more wish that you should know, and which fewer people do know, than the true use and value of time. It is in everybody's mouth; but in few people's practice.

Have a real reserve with almost everybody; and have a seeming reserve with almost nobody; for it is very disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so. Few people find the true medium; many are ridiculously mysterious and reserved upon trifles; and many imprudently communicative of all they know.

There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt; and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; (they will both fall into the ditch.) The only sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to go.

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 very justly, TELL ME WHO YOU LIVE WITH AND I WILL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE!

Attention and civility please all Avoid singularity Blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied Choose your pleasures for yourself Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others Complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses Contempt Disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so Do as you would be done by Do what you are about Dress well, and not too well Dress like the reasonable people of your own age Easy without too much familiarity Employ your whole time, which few people do Exalt the gentle in woman and man--above the merely genteel Eyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut Fit to live--or not live at all Flexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world Genteel without affectation Geography and history are very imperfect separately Good-breeding Gratitude not being universal, nor even common Greatest fools are the greatest liars He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds If once we quarrel, I will never forgive Injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult Judge of every man's truth by his degree of understanding Knowing any language imperfectly Knowledge: either despise it, or think that they have enough Labor is the unavoidable fatigue of a necessary journey Let nothing pass till you understand it Life of ignorance is not only a very contemptible, but tiresome Listlessness and indolence are always blameable Make a great difference between companions and friends Make himself whatever he pleases, except a good poet Merit and good-breeding will make their way everywhere Never maintain an argument with heat and clamor Observe, without being thought an observer Only doing one thing at a time Pay them with compliments, but not with confidence Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon Pride of being the first of the company Real friendship is a slow grower Receive them with great civility, but with great incredulity Recommend (pleasure) to you, like an Epicurean Respectful without meanness, easy without too much familiarity Scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow Sentiment-mongers State your difficulties, whenever you have any Studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world Sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to Talk of natural affection is talking nonsense Nothing so precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost Unguarded frankness Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well Wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1748 [LC#02][lc02sxxx.xxx]3352

They go abroad, as they call it; but, in truth, they stay at home all that while; for being very awkward, confoundedly ashamed, and not speaking the languages.

If, therefore, you would avoid the accusation of pedantry on one hand, or the suspicion of ignorance on the other, abstain from learned ostentation.

Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.

Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it, it will counsel you best.

La Rochefoucault, is, I know, blamed, but I think without reason, for deriving all our actions from the source of self-love. For my own part, I see a great deal of truth, and no harm at all, in that opinion. It is certain that we seek our own happiness in everything we do.

A little learning is a dangerous thing Above all things, avoid speaking of yourself Above the frivolous as below the important and the secret Absolute command of your temper Abstain from learned ostentation Absurd term of genteel and fashionable vices Advice is seldom welcome Affectation in dress Always look people in the face when you speak to them Ancients and Moderns Argumentative, polemical conversations As willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody Authority Better not to seem to understand, than to reply Cannot understand them, or will not desire to understand them Cardinal de Retz Cardinal Virtues, by first degrading them into weaknesses Cautious how we draw inferences Chameleon, be able to take every different hue Cheerful in the countenance, but without laughing Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon) Commonplace observations Complaisance Consciousness and an honest pride of doing well Contempt Conversation will help you almost as much as books Conversation-stock being a joint and common property Converse with his inferiors without insolence Deserve a little, and you shall have but a little Desirous of praise from the praiseworthy Dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie Difficulties seem to them, impossibilities Distinguish between the useful and the curious Do as you would be done by Do what you will but do something all day long Either do not think, or do not love to think Equally forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful Every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness Fiddle-faddle stories, that carry no information along with them Flattery of women Forge accusations against themselves Forgive, but not approve, the bad. Frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior Gain the affections as well as the esteem Generosity often runs into profusion Go to the bottom of things Good company Graces: Without us, all labor is vain Great learning; which, if not accompanied with sound judgment Great numbers of people met together, animate each other Habit and prejudice Half done or half known Hardly any body good for every thing Have a will and an opinion of your own, and adhere to it Have but one set of jokes to live upon He will find it out of himself without your endeavors Heart has such an influence over the understanding Helps only, not as guides Historians Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed Honestest man loves himself best How much you have to do; and how little time to do it in I hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear alternately I shall always love you as you shall deserve. If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself Impertinent insult upon custom and fashion Inaction at your age is unpardonable Jealous of being slighted Judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages Keep good company, and company above yourself Know their real value, and how much they are generally overrated Knowledge is like power in this respect Knowledge of a scholar with the manners of a courtier Laughing, I must particularly warn you against it Lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind Let me see more of you in your letters Little minds mistake little objects for great ones Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob Low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite laughter Low company, most falsely and impudently, call pleasure Luther's disappointed avarice Make yourself necessary Manner of doing things is often more important Manners must adorn knowledge May not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned More one sees, the less one either wonders or admires More you know, the modester you should be Mortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank, fortune Most long talkers single out some one unfortunate man in company Much sooner forgive an injustice than an insult Mystical nonsense Name that we leave behind at one place often gets before us Neglect them in little things, they will leave you in great Negligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing Neither retail nor receive scandal willingly Never quit a subject till you are thoroughly master of it Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with Never slattern away one minute in idleness Never to speak of yourself at all Not one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all Not to admire anything too much Oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings Out of livery; which makes them both impertinent and useless Overvalue what we do not know Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company People angling for praise People never desire all till they have gotten a great deal Plain notions of right and wrong Planted while young, that degree of knowledge now my refuge Pleased to some degree by showing a desire to please Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in yourself Pleasure and business with equal inattention Prefer useful to frivolous conversations Pride remembers it forever Prudent reserve Reason ought to direct the whole, but seldom does Refuge of people who have neither wit nor invention of their own Refuse more gracefully than other people could grant Repeating Represent, but do not pronounce Rochefoucault Rough corners which mere nature has given to the smoothest Scandal: receiver is always thought, as bad as the thief Scarcely any body who is absolutely good for nothing Scrupled no means to obtain his ends Secrets Seeming frankness with a real reserve Seeming openness is prudent Self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults Serious without being dull Shakespeare Shepherds and ministers are both men Some complaisance and attention to fools is prudent Some men pass their whole time in doing nothing Something or other is to be got out of everybody Swearing Take nothing for granted, upon the bare authority of the author Take, rather than give, the tone of the company you are in Talk often, but never long Talk sillily upon a subject of other people's Talking of either your own or other people's domestic affairs Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are Tell stories very seldom The best have something bad, and something little The worst have something good, and sometimes something great Thin veil of Modesty drawn before Vanity Thoroughly, not superficially To know people's real sentiments, I trust much more to my eyes Unopened, because one title in twenty has been omitted Value of moments, when cast up, is immense Vanity, that source of many of our follies What displeases or pleases you in others What you feel pleases you in them When well dressed for the day think no more of it afterward Will not so much as hint at our follies Witty without satire or commonplace Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is You had much better hold your tongue than them Your merit and your manners can alone raise you