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diff --git a/3531.txt b/3531.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..256db99 --- /dev/null +++ b/3531.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1995 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Quotations of Lord Chesterfield +DW#06 in our series of Widger's Quotations by David Widger + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS + +FROM THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EDITION OF +LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON + +by David Widger + + + + +CONTENTS: + +The Entire PG Edition of Chesterfield .....[LC#11][lcewk10.txt]3261 +Complete Letters to His Son ...............[LC#11][lc11s10.txt]3361 +Letters To His Son 1766-71, ...............[LC#10][lc10s10.txt]3360 +Letters To His Son 1759-65, ...............[LC#09][lc09s10.txt]3359 +Letters To His Son 1756-58, ...............[LC#08][lc08s10.txt]3358 +Letters To His Son 1753-54, ...............[LC#07][lc07s10.txt]3357 +Letters To His Son 1752, ..................[LC#06][lc06s10.txt]3356 +Letters To His Son 1751, ..................[LC#05][lc05s10.txt]3355 +Letters To His Son 1750, ..................[LC#04][lc04s10.txt]3354 +Letters To His Son 1749, ..................[LC#03][lc03s10.txt]3353 +Letters To His Son 1748, ..................[LC#02][lc02s10.txt]3352 +Letters To His Son 1746-47, ...............[LC#01][lc01s10.txt]3351 + + + + + + + EDITOR'S NOTE + +Readers acquainted with the letters of Lord Chesterfield to His Son +may wish to see if their favorite passages are listed in this +selection. The etext editor will be glad to add your suggestions. +One of the advantages of internet over paper publication is the ease +of quick revision. + +All the titles may be found using the Project Gutenberg search engine +at: + http://promo.net/pg/ + +After downloading a specific file, the location and complete context of +the quotations may be found by inserting a small part of the quotation +into the 'Find' or 'Search' functions of the user's word processing +program. + +The quotations are in two formats: + 1. Small passages from the text. + 2. Lists of alphabetized one-liners. + +The editor may be contacted at <widger@cecomet.net> for comments, +questions or suggested additions to these extracts. + +D.W. + + + + + + + + WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1746-47 +[LC#01][lc01sxxx.xxx]3351 + +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 + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1749 +[LC#03][lc03sxxx.xxx]3353 + +He always does more than he says. + +The arrogant pedant does not communicate, but promulgates his knowledge. +He does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you; and is(if possible) +more desirous to show you your own ignorance than his own learning. + +Due attention to the inside of books, and due contempt for the outside, +is the proper relation between a man of sense and his books. + +Cardinal de Retz observes, very justly, that every numerous assembly is a +mob, influenced by their passions, humors, and affections, which nothing +but eloquence ever did or ever can engage. + +Frivolous curiosity about trifles, and a laborious attention to little +objects which neither require nor deserve a moment's thought, lower a +man; who from thence is thought (and not unjustly) incapable of greater +matters. + +Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools. + +May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer! or may you +rather die before you cease to be fit to live! + + +A joker is near akin to a buffoon +Ablest man will sometimes do weak things +Above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them +Advise those who do not speak elegantly, not to speak +Always does more than he says +Always some favorite word for the time being +Arrogant pedant +Ascribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes +Assign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions +Attend to the objects of your expenses, but not to the sums +Attention to the inside of books +Awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions +Being in the power of every man to hurt him +Can hardly be said to see what they see +Cardinal Mazarin +Cardinal Richelieu +Complaisance due to the custom of the place +Conjectures supply the defect of unattainable knowledge +Connive at knaves, and tolerate fools +Deep learning is generally tainted with pedantry +Deepest learning, without good-breeding, is unwelcome +Desirous of pleasing +Dictate to them while you seem to be directed by them +Dissimulation is only to hide our own cards +Do not become a virtuoso of small wares +Does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you +Endeavors to please and oblige our fellow-creatures +Every man pretends to common sense +Every numerous assembly is a mob +Eyes and the ears are the only roads to the heart +Few dare dissent from an established opinion +Few things which people in general know less, than how to love +Flattering people behind their backs +Fools never perceive where they are ill-timed +Friendship upon very slight acquaintance +Frivolous curiosity about trifles +Frivolous, idle people, whose time hangs upon their own hands +Gain the heart, or you gain nothing +General conclusions from certain particular principles +Good manners +Haste and hurry are very different things +Herd of mankind can hardly be said to think +Human nature is always the same +Hurt those they love by a mistaken indulgence +Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds +If I don't mind his orders he won't mind my draughts +Inattentive, absent; and distrait +Incontinency of friendship among young fellows +Indiscriminate familiarity +Inquisition +Insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself +Insolent civility +It is not sufficient to deserve well; one must please well too +Know the true value of time +Known people pretend to vices they had not +Knows what things are little, and what not +Learn, if you can, the WHY and the WHEREFORE +Leave the company, at least as soon as he is wished out of it +Led, much oftener by little things than by great ones +Little failings and weaknesses +Love with him, who they think is the most in love with them +Machiavel +Mastery of one's temper +May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer! +May you rather die before you cease to be fit to live +Moderation with your enemies +Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears +Never implicitly adopt a character upon common fame +Never would know anything that he had not a mind to know +No man is distrait with the man he fears, or the woman he loves +Nothing in courts is exactly as it appears to be +Our understandings are generally the DUPES of our hearts +People will repay, and with interest too, inattention +Perfection of everything that is worth doing at all +POLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE +Public speaking +Quietly cherished error, instead of seeking for truth +Reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form +Reserve with your friends +Six, or at most seven hours sleep +Sooner forgive an injury than an insult +There are many avenues to every man +Those who remarkably affect any one virtue +Three passions that often put honesty to most severe trials +To great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness +Trifling parts, with their little jargon +Truth leaves no room for compliments +We have many of those useful prejudices in this country +Whatever pleases you most in others +World is taken by the outside of things + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1750 +[LC#04][lc04sxxx.xxx]3354 + +What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you. + +Spare the persons while you lash the crimes. + +Pocket all your knowledge with your watch, and never pull it out in +company unless desired: the producing of the one unasked, implies that +you are weary of the company; and the producing of the other unrequired, +will make the company weary of you. + +People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority. Conceal all +your learning carefully.... + +A man of the world knows the force of flattery; but then he knows how, +when, and where to give it; he proportions his dose to the constitution +of the patient. He flatters by application, by inference, by comparison, +by hint, and seldom directly. + + +Absurd romances of the two last centuries +Advocate, the friend, but not the bully of virtue +Assurance and intrepidity +Attention +Author is obscure and difficult in his own language +Characters, that never existed, are insipidly displayed +Commanding with dignity, you must serve up to it with diligence +Complaisance to every or anybody's opinion +Conceal all your learning carefully +Connections +Contempt +Content yourself with mediocrity in nothing +Dance to those who pipe +Decides peremptorily upon every subject +Desire to please, and that is the main point +Desirous to make you their friend +Despairs of ever being able to pay +Difference in everything between system and practice +Dignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well as in business +Distinction between simulation and dissimulation +Do not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the gold of Virgil +Doing what may deserve to be written +Done under concern and embarrassment, must be ill done +Dressed as the generality of people of fashion are +Economist of your time +Establishing a character of integrity and good manners +Feed him, and feed upon him at the same time +Flattery +Fortune stoops to the forward and the bold +Frivolous and superficial pertness +Gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight +Guard against those who make the most court to you +Have no pleasures but your own +If you will persuade, you must first please +Improve yourself with the old, divert yourself with the young +Indiscriminately loading their memories with every part alike +Insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else +Labor more to put them in conceit with themselves +Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably +Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote +Let nobody discover that you do know your own value +Let them quietly enjoy their errors in taste +Man is dishonored by not resenting an affront +Manner is full as important as the matter +Method +Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise +Money, the cause of much mischief +More people have ears to be tickled, than understandings to judge +Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends +Necessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances +Never affect the character in which you have a mind to shine +Never read history without having maps +No one feels pleasure, who does not at the same time give it +Not only pure, but, like Caesar's wife, unsuspected +Often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment +Passes for a wit, though he hath certainly no uncommon share +Patient toleration of certain airs of superiority +People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority +People lose a great deal of time by reading +Pleased with him, by making them first pleased with themselves +Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal +Pocket all your knowledge with your watch +Put out your time, but to good interest +Real merit of any kind will be discovered +Respect without timidity +Rich man never borrows +Same coolness and unconcern in any and every company +Seem to like and approve of everything at first +Sentiments that were never felt, pompously described +She has all the reading that a woman should have +She who conquers only catches a Tartar +Silence in love betrays more woe +Spare the persons while you lash the crimes +Steady assurance, with seeming modesty +Suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgive +Take the hue of the company you are with +Taking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinsic merit +The present moments are the only ones we are sure of +Those whom you can make like themselves better +Timidity and diffidence +To be heard with success, you must be heard with pleasure +To be pleased one must please +Trifle only with triflers; and be serious only with the serious +Trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon +Unwilling and forced; it will never please +Well dressed, not finely dressed +What is impossible, and what is only difficult +What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you +Whatever real merit you have, other people will discover +Wish you, my dear friend, as many happy new years as you deserve +Women choose their favorites more by the ear +Words are the dress of thoughts +Writing what may deserve to be read +You must be respectable, if you will be respected +Your character there, whatever it is, will get before you here + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1751 +[LC#05][lc05sxxx.xxx]3355 + +If you find that you have a hastiness in your temper, which unguardedly +breaks out into indiscreet sallies, or rough expressions, to either your +superiors, your equals, or your inferiors, watch it narrowly, check it +carefully, and call the 'suaviter in modo' to your assistance: at the +first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft. + +He often is unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes so, I dare say, +to himself. + +"The prostrate lover, when he lowest lies, +But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise." + +We are so made, we love to be pleased better than to be informed; +information is, in a certain degree, mortifying, as it implies our +previous ignorance; it must be sweetened to be palatable. + +Free from the guilt: be free from the suspicion, too. Mankind, as I have +often told you, are more governed by appearances than by realities; and +with regard to opinion, one had better be really rough and hard, with the +appearance of gentleness and softness, than just the reverse. + + +A favor may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend +Affectation of business +Applauded often, without approving +At the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft +Avoid cacophony, and, what is very near as bad, monotony +Be silent till you can be soft +Being intelligible is now no longer the fashion +Better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily +Business must be well, not affectedly dressed +Business now is to shine, not to weigh +Cease to love when you cease to be agreeable +Chit-chat, useful to keep off improper and too serious subjects +Committing acts of hostility upon the Graces +Concealed what learning I had +Consciousness of merit makes a man of sense more modest +Disagreeable things may be done so agreeably as almost to oblige +Disputes with heat +Easy without negligence +Elegance in one language will reproduce itself in all +Every man knows that he understands religion and politics +Every numerous assembly is MOB +Everybody is good for something +Expresses himself with more fire than elegance +Frank without indiscretion +Full-bottomed wigs were contrived for his humpback +Gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind +German, who has taken into his head that he understands French +Grow wiser when it is too late +Habitual eloquence +Hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind +Have you learned to carve? +If free from the guilt, be free from the suspicion, too +Inclined to be fat, but I hope you will decline it +Indolently say that they cannot do +Information implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened +Information is, in a certain degree, mortifying +Insinuates himself only into the esteem of fools +It is a real inconvenience to anybody to be fat +Know, yourself and others +Knowing how much you have, and how little you want +Last beautiful varnish, which raises the colors +Learn to keep your own secrets +Loved without being despised, and feared without being hated +Man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry +Mangles what he means to carve +Mazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the shackles +Meditation and reflection +Mere reason and good sense is never to be talked to a mob +Mistimes or misplaces everything +Mitigating, engaging words do by no means weaken your argument +MOB: Understanding they have collectively none +Often necessary, not to manifest all one feels +One must often yield, in order to prevail +Only because she will not, and not because she cannot +Our frivolous dissertations upon the weather, or upon whist +Outward air of modesty to all he does +Richelieu came and shackled the nation +Rochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man very exactly +See what you see, and to hear what you hear +Seems to have no opinion of his own +Seldom a misfortune to be childless +She has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a woman +Speaking to himself in the glass +Style is the dress of thoughts +Success turns much more upon manner than matter +Tacitus +Take characters, as they do most things, upon trust +They thought I informed, because I pleased them +Unaffected silence upon that subject is the only true medium +Unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes to himself +Use palliatives when you contradict +We love to be pleased better than to be informed +Woman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased +Women are the only refiners of the merit of men +Yielded commonly without conviction + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1752 +[LC#06][lc06sxxx.xxx]3356 + +Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often +heard indeed, but seldom minded. + +Enjoy every moment; pleasures do not commonly last so long as life, and +therefore should not be neglected; and the longest life is too short for +knowledge, consequently every moment is precious. + +A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old +fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not. + +Laziness of mind, or inattention, are as great enemies to knowledge as +incapacity; for, in truth, what difference is there between a man who +will not, and a man who cannot be informed? This difference only, that +the former is justly to be blamed, the latter to be pitied. And yet how +many there are, very capable of receiving knowledge, who from laziness, +inattention, and incuriousness, will not so much as ask for it, much less +take the least pains to acquire it! + +Vicissitudes frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends; +you must labor, therefore, to acquire that great and uncommon talent of +hating with good-breeding and loving with prudence. + + +Art of pleasing is the most necessary +Assenting, but without being servile and abject +Assertion instead of argument +Attacked by ridicule, and, punished with contempt +Bold, but with great seeming modesty +Close, without being costive +Command of our temper, and of our countenance +Company is, in truth, a constant state of negotiation +Consider things in the worst light, to show your skill +Darkness visible +Defended by arms, adorned by manners, and improved by laws +Doing nothing, and might just as well be asleep +Endeavor to hear, and know all opinions +Enjoy all those advantages +Few people know how to love, or how to hate +Fools, who can never be undeceived +Frank, but without indiscretion +Frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends +Grave without the affectation of wisdom +Horace +How troublesome an old correspondent must be to a young one +I CANNOT DO SUCH A THING +Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains +Inattention +Infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery +Judges from the appearances of things, and not from the reality +Keep your own temper and artfully warm other people's +King's popularity is a better guard than their army +Made him believe that the world was made for him +Make every man I met with like me, and every woman love me +Man or woman cannot resist an engaging exterior +Man who is only good on holydays is good for very little +Never seek for wit; if it presents itself, well and good +Not making use of any one capital letter +Notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes +Old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not +Please all who are worth pleasing; offend none +Pleasures do not commonly last so long as life +Polite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness +Prejudices are our mistresses +Quarrel with them when they are grown up, for being spoiled +Read with caution and distrust +Ruined their own son by what they called loving him +Secret, without being dark and mysterious +Seeming inattention to the person who is speaking to you +Talent of hating with good-breeding and loving with prudence +The longest life is too short for knowledge +Trifles that concern you are not trifles to me +Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle +Useful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid +Where one would gain people, remember that nothing is little +Wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded +Wit may created any admirers but makes few friends +Young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1753-54 +[LC#07][lc07sxxx.xxx]3357 + +Never to show the least symptom of resentment which you cannot to a +certain degree gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike. + +Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as +singular as I please, but you may not. + +You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom +does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp its seat, and rule +in its stead. + +I look upon indolence as a sort of SUICIDE; for the man is effectually +destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive. Business by no +means forbids pleasures; on the contrary, they reciprocally season each +other; and I will venture to affirm, that no man enjoys either in +perfection, that does not join both. + +Reasons alleged are seldom the true ones. + +It is only the manner of saying or writing it that makes it appear new. +Convince yourself that manner is almost everything, in everything; and +study it accordingly. + + +According as their interest prompts them to wish +Acquainted with books, and an absolute stranger to men +Affectation of singularity or superiority +All have senses to be gratified +Business by no means forbids pleasures +Clamorers triumph +Doing anything that will deserve to be written +Ears to hear, but not sense enough to judge +ERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE STAGE +Good manners are the settled medium of social life +Good reasons alleged are seldom the true ones +Holiday eloquence +I know myself (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you) +Indolence +INTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality in civil matters +Kick him upstairs +Many are very willing, and very few able +Perseverance has surprising effects +Pettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too young +Reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does +Singularity is only pardonable in old age +Smile, where you cannot strike +To govern mankind, one must not overrate them +Too like, and too exact a picture of human nature +Vanity, interest, and absurdity, always display +Warm and young thanks, not old and cold ones +Writing anything that may deserve to be read +Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough +Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1756-58 +[LC#08][lc08sxxx.xxx]3358 + +MY DEAR FRIEND: I have so little to do, that I am surprised how I can +find time to write to you so often. Do not stare at the seeming paradox; +for it is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time +one finds to do it in. + +Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not +know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the +bare suspicion of ignorance! + +There is not a more prudent maxim than to live with one's enemies as if +they may one day become one's friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or +later. + +What have I done to-day? Have I done anything that can be of use to +myself or others? Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it? +Have I lived out the day, or have I dozed it away in sloth and laziness? + +Many things which seem extremely probable are not true: and many which +seem highly improbable are true. + +The more one works, the more willing one is to work. We are all, more or +less, 'des animaux d'habitude'. + + +Am still unwell; I cannot help it! +Apt to make them think themselves more necessary than they are +BUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE THINKS PROPER +Conjectures pass upon us for truths +Enemies as if they may one day become one's friends +Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it? +Home, be it ever so homely +Jog on like man and wife; that is, seldom agreeing +Less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in +Many things which seem extremely probable are not true +More one works, the more willing one is to work +Most ignorant are, as usual, the boldest conjecturers +Nipped in the bud +No great regard for human testimony +Not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears +Person to you whom I am very indifferent about, I mean myself +Petty jury +Something must be said, but that something must be nothing +Sow jealousies among one's enemies +Think to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance +Think yourself less well than you are, in order to be quite so +What have I done to-day? +Will pay very dear for the quarrels and ambition of a few + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1759-65 +[LC#09][lc09sxxx.xxx]3359 + +Whatever one MUST do, one should do 'de bonne grace'. + +Appears that you are rather a gainer by your misfortune. + +I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know. + +In short, let it be your maxim through life to know all you can know, +yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the informations of others. +This rule has been of infinite service to me in the course of my life. + +I feel a gradual decay, though a gentle one; and I think that I shall not +tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life. When that +will be, I neither know nor care, for I am very weary. + +I find nothing much worth either desiring or fearing. But these +reflections, which suit with seventy, would be greatly premature at two- +and-thirty. So make the best of your time; enjoy the present hour, but +'memor ultimae'. + +In the intercourse of the world, it is often necessary to seem ignorant +of what one knows, and to have forgotten what one remembers. + + +Always made the best of the best, and never made bad worse +American Colonies +Be neither transported nor depressed by the accidents of life +Doing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not help doing +EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST +Everything has a better and a worse side +Extremely weary of this silly world +Gainer by your misfortune +I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know +Intrinsic, and not their imaginary value +My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good +National honor and interest have been sacrificed to private +Neither abilities or words enough to call a coach +Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary +Never saw a froward child mended by whipping +Never to trust implicitly to the informations of others +Not make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them +Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life +Nothing much worth either desiring or fearing +Often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows +Only solid and lasting peace, between a man and his wife +Oysters, are only in season in the R months +Patience is the only way not to make bad worse +Recommends self-conversation to all authors +Return you the ball 'a la volee' +Settled here for good, as it is called +Stamp-duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay +Thinks himself much worse than he is +To seem to have forgotten what one remembers +We shall be feared, if we do not show that we fear +Whatever one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace' +Who takes warning by the fate of others? +Women are all so far Machiavelians + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1766-71 +[LC#10][lc10sxxx.xxx]3360 + +All I desire for my own burial is not to be buried alive; but how or +where, I think must be entirely indifferent to every rational creature. + +Get what I can, if I cannot get what I will. + +There must have been some very grave and important reasons for so +extraordinary a measure: but what they were I do not pretend to guess; +and perhaps I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do. + +I am neither well nor ill, but UNWELL. + +Those who wish him the best, as I do, must wish him dead. + +I would have all intoleration intolerated in its turn. + + +Anxiety for my health and life +Borough-jobber +I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do. +Read my eyes out every day, that I may not hang myself +Stamp-act has proved a most pernicious measure +Water-drinkers can write nothing good +Would not tell what she did not know + + + + + +THE ENTIRE PG EDITION OF CHESTERFIELD +[LC#11][lcewkxxx.xxx]3261 + +A little learning is a dangerous thing +A joker is near akin to a buffoon +A favor may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend +Ablest man will sometimes do weak things +Above all things, avoid speaking of yourself +Above the frivolous as below the important and the secret +Above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them +Absolute command of your temper +Abstain from learned ostentation +Absurd term of genteel and fashionable vices +Absurd romances of the two last centuries +According as their interest prompts them to wish +Acquainted with books, and an absolute stranger to men +Advice is seldom welcome +Advise those who do not speak elegantly, not to speak +Advocate, the friend, but not the bully of virtue +Affectation of singularity or superiority +Affectation in dress +Affectation of business +All have senses to be gratified +Always made the best of the best, and never made bad worse +Always does more than he says +Always some favorite word for the time being +Always look people in the face when you speak to them +Am still unwell; I cannot help it! +American Colonies +Ancients and Moderns +Anxiety for my health and life +Applauded often, without approving +Apt to make them think themselves more necessary than they are +Argumentative, polemical conversations +Arrogant pedant +Art of pleasing is the most necessary +As willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody +Ascribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes +Assenting, but without being servile and abject +Assertion instead of argument +Assign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions +Assurance and intrepidity +At the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft +Attacked by ridicule, and, punished with contempt +Attend to the objects of your expenses, but not to the sums +Attention to the inside of books +Attention and civility please all +Attention +Author is obscure and difficult in his own language +Authority +Avoid cacophony, and, what is very near as bad, monotony +Avoid singularity +Awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions +Be neither transported nor depressed by the accidents of life +Be silent till you can be soft +Being in the power of every man to hurt him +Being intelligible is now no longer the fashion +Better not to seem to understand, than to reply +Better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily +Blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied +Bold, but with great seeming modesty +Borough_jobber +Business must be well, not affectedly dressed +Business now is to shine, not to weigh +Business by no means forbids pleasures +BUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE THINKS PROPER +Can hardly be said to see what they see +Cannot understand them, or will not desire to understand them +Cardinal Mazarin +Cardinal Richelieu +Cardinal de Retz +Cardinal Virtues, by first degrading them into weaknesses +Cautious how we draw inferences +Cease to love when you cease to be agreeable +Chameleon, be able to take every different hue +Characters, that never existed, are insipidly displayed +Cheerful in the countenance, but without laughing +Chit_chat, useful to keep off improper and too serious subjects +Choose your pleasures for yourself +Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others +Clamorers triumph +Close, without being costive +Command of our temper, and of our countenance +Commanding with dignity, you must serve up to it with diligence +Committing acts of hostility upon the Graces +Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon) +Commonplace observations +Company is, in truth, a constant state of negotiation +Complaisance +Complaisance to every or anybody's opinion +Complaisance due to the custom of the place +Complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses +Conceal all your learning carefully +Concealed what learning I had +Conjectures pass upon us for truths +Conjectures supply the defect of unattainable knowledge +Connections +Connive at knaves, and tolerate fools +Consciousness of merit makes a man of sense more modest +Consciousness and an honest pride of doing well +Consider things in the worst light, to show your skill +Contempt +Contempt +Contempt +Content yourself with mediocrity in nothing +Conversation_stock being a joint and common property +Conversation will help you almost as much as books +Converse with his inferiors without insolence +Dance to those who pipe +Darkness visible +Decides peremptorily upon every subject +Deep learning is generally tainted with pedantry +Deepest learning, without good_breeding, is unwelcome +Defended by arms, adorned by manners, and improved by laws +Deserve a little, and you shall have but a little +Desire to please, and that is the main point +Desirous of praise from the praiseworthy +Desirous to make you their friend +Desirous of pleasing +Despairs of ever being able to pay +Dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie +Dictate to them while you seem to be directed by them +Difference in everything between system and practice +Difficulties seem to them, impossibilities +Dignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well as in business +Disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so +Disagreeable things may be done so agreeably as almost to oblige +Disputes with heat +Dissimulation is only to hide our own cards +Distinction between simulation and dissimulation +Distinguish between the useful and the curious +Do as you would be done by +Do not become a virtuoso of small wares +Do what you are about +Do what you will but do something all day long +Do as you would be done by +Do not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the gold of Virgil +Does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you +Doing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not help doing +Doing what may deserve to be written +Doing nothing, and might just as well be asleep +Doing anything that will deserve to be written +Done under concern and embarrassment, must be ill done +Dress like the reasonable people of your own age +Dress well, and not too well +Dressed as the generality of people of fashion are +Ears to hear, but not sense enough to judge +Easy without negligence +Easy without too much familiarity +Economist of your time +Either do not think, or do not love to think +Elegance in one language will reproduce itself in all +Employ your whole time, which few people do +Endeavor to hear, and know all opinions +Endeavors to please and oblige our fellow_creatures +Enemies as if they may one day become one's friends +Enjoy all those advantages +Equally forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy +ERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE STAGE +Establishing a character of integrity and good manners +Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful +Every numerous assembly is MOB +Every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness +Every man knows that he understands religion and politics +Every numerous assembly is a mob +Every man pretends to common sense +EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST +Everybody is good for something +Everything has a better and a worse side +Exalt the gentle in woman and man__above the merely genteel +Expresses himself with more fire than elegance +Extremely weary of this silly world +Eyes and the ears are the only roads to the heart +Eyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut +Feed him, and feed upon him at the same time +Few things which people in general know less, than how to love +Few people know how to love, or how to hate +Few dare dissent from an established opinion +Fiddle_faddle stories, that carry no information along with them +Fit to live__or not live at all +Flattering people behind their backs +Flattery of women +Flattery +Flexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world +Fools, who can never be undeceived +Fools never perceive where they are ill_timed +Forge accusations against themselves +Forgive, but not approve, the bad. +Fortune stoops to the forward and the bold +Frank without indiscretion +Frank, but without indiscretion +Frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior +Frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends +Friendship upon very slight acquaintance +Frivolous, idle people, whose time hangs upon their own hands +Frivolous curiosity about trifles +Frivolous and superficial pertness +Full_bottomed wigs were contrived for his humpback +Gain the heart, or you gain nothing +Gain the affections as well as the esteem +Gainer by your misfortune +General conclusions from certain particular principles +Generosity often runs into profusion +Genteel without affectation +Gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight +Gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind +Geography and history are very imperfect separately +German, who has taken into his head that he understands French +Go to the bottom of things +Good manners +Good reasons alleged are seldom the true ones +Good manners are the settled medium of social life +Good company +Good_breeding +Graces: Without us, all labor is vain +Gratitude not being universal, nor even common +Grave without the affectation of wisdom +Great learning; which, if not accompanied with sound judgment +Great numbers of people met together, animate each other +Greatest fools are the greatest liars +Grow wiser when it is too late +Guard against those who make the most court to you +Habit and prejudice +Habitual eloquence +Half done or half known +Hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind +Hardly any body good for every thing +Haste and hurry are very different things +Have no pleasures but your own +Have a will and an opinion of your own, and adhere to it +Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it? +Have but one set of jokes to live upon +Have you learned to carve? +He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds +He will find it out of himself without your endeavors +Heart has such an influence over the understanding +Helps only, not as guides +Herd of mankind can hardly be said to think +Historians +Holiday eloquence +Home, be it ever so homely +Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed +Honestest man loves himself best +Horace +How troublesome an old correspondent must be to a young one +How much you have to do; and how little time to do it in +Human nature is always the same +Hurt those they love by a mistaken indulgence +I hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear alternately +I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do. +I shall always love you as you shall deserve. +I know myself (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you) +I CANNOT DO SUCH A THING +I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know +Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds +If free from the guilt, be free from the suspicion, too +If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself +If I don't mind his orders he won't mind my draughts +If you will persuade, you must first please +If once we quarrel, I will never forgive +Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains +Impertinent insult upon custom and fashion +Improve yourself with the old, divert yourself with the young +Inaction at your age is unpardonable +Inattention +Inattentive, absent; and distrait +Inclined to be fat, but I hope you will decline it +Incontinency of friendship among young fellows +Indiscriminate familiarity +Indiscriminately loading their memories with every part alike +Indolence +Indolently say that they cannot do +Infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery +Information is, in a certain degree, mortifying +Information implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened +Injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult +Inquisition +Insinuates himself only into the esteem of fools +Insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else +Insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself +Insolent civility +INTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality in civil matters +Intrinsic, and not their imaginary value +It is a real inconvenience to anybody to be fat +It is not sufficient to deserve well; one must please well too +Jealous of being slighted +Jog on like man and wife; that is, seldom agreeing +Judge of every man's truth by his degree of understanding +Judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages +Judges from the appearances of things, and not from the reality +Keep your own temper and artfully warm other people's +Keep good company, and company above yourself +Kick him upstairs +King's popularity is a better guard than their army +Know their real value, and how much they are generally overrated +Know the true value of time +Know, yourself and others +Knowing how much you have, and how little you want +Knowing any language imperfectly +Knowledge is like power in this respect +Knowledge: either despise it, or think that they have enough +Knowledge of a scholar with the manners of a courtier +Known people pretend to vices they had not +Knows what things are little, and what not +Labor is the unavoidable fatigue of a necessary journey +Labor more to put them in conceit with themselves +Last beautiful varnish, which raises the colors +Laughing, I must particularly warn you against it +Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably +Lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind +Learn to keep your own secrets +Learn, if you can, the WHY and the WHEREFORE +Leave the company, at least as soon as he is wished out of it +Led, much oftener by little things than by great ones +Less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in +Let me see more of you in your letters +Let them quietly enjoy their errors in taste +Let nobody discover that you do know your own value +Let nothing pass till you understand it +Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote +Life of ignorance is not only a very contemptible, but tiresome +Listlessness and indolence are always blameable +Little minds mistake little objects for great ones +Little failings and weaknesses +Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob +Love with him, who they think is the most in love with them +Loved without being despised, and feared without being hated +Low company, most falsely and impudently, call pleasure +Low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite laughter +Luther's disappointed avarice +Machiavel +Made him believe that the world was made for him +Make a great difference between companions and friends +Make himself whatever he pleases, except a good poet +Make yourself necessary +Make every man I met with like me, and every woman love me +Man is dishonored by not resenting an affront +Man or woman cannot resist an engaging exterior +Man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry +Man who is only good on holydays is good for very little +Mangles what he means to carve +Manner is full as important as the matter +Manner of doing things is often more important +Manners must adorn knowledge +Many things which seem extremely probable are not true +Many are very willing, and very few able +Mastery of one's temper +May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer! +May you rather die before you cease to be fit to live +May not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned +Mazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the shackles +Meditation and reflection +Mere reason and good sense is never to be talked to a mob +Merit and good_breeding will make their way everywhere +Method +Mistimes or misplaces everything +Mitigating, engaging words do by no means weaken your argument +MOB: Understanding they have collectively none +Moderation with your enemies +Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise +Money, the cause of much mischief +More people have ears to be tickled, than understandings to judge +More one sees, the less one either wonders or admires +More you know, the modester you should be +More one works, the more willing one is to work +Mortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank, fortune +Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends +Most long talkers single out some one unfortunate man in company +Most ignorant are, as usual, the boldest conjecturers +Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears +Much sooner forgive an injustice than an insult +My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good +Mystical nonsense +Name that we leave behind at one place often gets before us +National honor and interest have been sacrificed to private +Necessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances +Neglect them in little things, they will leave you in great +Negligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing +Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary +Neither abilities or words enough to call a coach +Neither retail nor receive scandal willingly +Never would know anything that he had not a mind to know +Never read history without having maps +Never affect the character in which you have a mind to shine +Never implicitly adopt a character upon common fame +Never seek for wit; if it presents itself, well and good +Never to speak of yourself at all +Never slattern away one minute in idleness +Never quit a subject till you are thoroughly master of it +Never maintain an argument with heat and clamor +Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with +Never saw a froward child mended by whipping +Never to trust implicitly to the informations of others +Nipped in the bud +No great regard for human testimony +No man is distrait with the man he fears, or the woman he loves +No one feels pleasure, who does not at the same time give it +Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life +Not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears +Not only pure, but, like Caesar's wife, unsuspected +Not make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them +Not making use of any one capital letter +Not to admire anything too much +Not one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all +Notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes +Nothing in courts is exactly as it appears to be +Nothing much worth either desiring or fearing +Nothing so precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost +Observe, without being thought an observer +Often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment +Often necessary, not to manifest all one feels +Often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows +Oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings +Old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not +One must often yield, in order to prevail +Only doing one thing at a time +Only because she will not, and not because she cannot +Only solid and lasting peace, between a man and his wife +Our understandings are generally the DUPES of our hearts +Our frivolous dissertations upon the weather, or upon whist +Out of livery; which makes them both impertinent and useless +Outward air of modesty to all he does +Overvalue what we do not know +Oysters, are only in season in the R months +Passes for a wit, though he hath certainly no uncommon share +Patience is the only way not to make bad worse +Patient toleration of certain airs of superiority +Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company +Pay them with compliments, but not with confidence +People never desire all till they have gotten a great deal +People lose a great deal of time by reading +People will repay, and with interest too, inattention +People angling for praise +People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority +Perfection of everything that is worth doing at all +Perseverance has surprising effects +Person to you whom I am very indifferent about, I mean myself +Pettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too young +Petty jury +Plain notions of right and wrong +Planted while young, that degree of knowledge now my refuge +Please all who are worth pleasing; offend none +Pleased to some degree by showing a desire to please +Pleased with him, by making them first pleased with themselves +Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in yourself +Pleasure and business with equal inattention +Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal +Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon +Pleasures do not commonly last so long as life +Pocket all your knowledge with your watch +Polite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness +POLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE +Prefer useful to frivolous conversations +Prejudices are our mistresses +Pride remembers it forever +Pride of being the first of the company +Prudent reserve +Public speaking +Put out your time, but to good interest +Quarrel with them when they are grown up, for being spoiled +Quietly cherished error, instead of seeking for truth +Read my eyes out every day, that I may not hang myself +Read with caution and distrust +Real merit of any kind will be discovered +Real friendship is a slow grower +Reason ought to direct the whole, but seldom does +Reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does +Receive them with great civility, but with great incredulity +Reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form +Recommend (pleasure) to you, like an Epicurean +Recommends self_conversation to all authors +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 +Reserve with your friends +Respect without timidity +Respectful without meanness, easy without too much familiarity +Return you the ball 'a la volee' +Rich man never borrows +Richelieu came and shackled the nation +Rochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man very exactly +Rochefoucault +Rough corners which mere nature has given to the smoothest +Ruined their own son by what they called loving him +Same coolness and unconcern in any and every company +Scandal: receiver is always thought, as bad as the thief +Scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow +Scarcely any body who is absolutely good for nothing +Scrupled no means to obtain his ends +Secret, without being dark and mysterious +Secrets +See what you see, and to hear what you hear +Seem to like and approve of everything at first +Seeming frankness with a real reserve +Seeming inattention to the person who is speaking to you +Seeming openness is prudent +Seems to have no opinion of his own +Seldom a misfortune to be childless +Self_love draws a thick veil between us and our faults +Sentiment_mongers +Sentiments that were never felt, pompously described +Serious without being dull +Settled here for good, as it is called +Shakespeare +She has all the reading that a woman should have +She who conquers only catches a Tartar +She has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a woman +Shepherds and ministers are both men +Silence in love betrays more woe +Singularity is only pardonable in old age +Six, or at most seven hours sleep +Smile, where you cannot strike +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 +Something must be said, but that something must be nothing +Sooner forgive an injury than an insult +Sow jealousies among one's enemies +Spare the persons while you lash the crimes +Speaking to himself in the glass +Stamp_act has proved a most pernicious measure +Stamp_duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay +State your difficulties, whenever you have any +Steady assurance, with seeming modesty +Studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world +Style is the dress of thoughts +Success turns much more upon manner than matter +Sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to +Suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgive +Swearing +Tacitus +Take the hue of the company you are with +Take characters, as they do most things, upon trust +Take, rather than give, the tone of the company you are in +Take nothing for granted, upon the bare authority of the author +Taking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinsic merit +Talent of hating with good_breeding and loving with prudence +Talk often, but never long +Talk sillily upon a subject of other people's +Talk of natural affection is talking nonsense +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 longest life is too short for knowledge +The present moments are the only ones we are sure of +The best have something bad, and something little +The worst have something good, and sometimes something great +There are many avenues to every man +They thought I informed, because I pleased them +Thin veil of Modesty drawn before Vanity +Think to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance +Think yourself less well than you are, in order to be quite so +Thinks himself much worse than he is +Thoroughly, not superficially +Those who remarkably affect any one virtue +Those whom you can make like themselves better +Three passions that often put honesty to most severe trials +Timidity and diffidence +To be heard with success, you must be heard with pleasure +To be pleased one must please +To govern mankind, one must not overrate them +To seem to have forgotten what one remembers +To know people's real sentiments, I trust much more to my eyes +To great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness +Too like, and too exact a picture of human nature +Trifle only with triflers; and be serious only with the serious +Trifles that concern you are not trifles to me +Trifling parts, with their little jargon +Trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon +Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle +Truth leaves no room for compliments +Unaffected silence upon that subject is the only true medium +Unguarded frankness +Unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes to himself +Unopened, because one title in twenty has been omitted +Unwilling and forced; it will never please +Use palliatives when you contradict +Useful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid +Value of moments, when cast up, is immense +Vanity, interest, and absurdity, always display +Vanity, that source of many of our follies +Warm and young thanks, not old and cold ones +Water_drinkers can write nothing good +We love to be pleased better than to be informed +We have many of those useful prejudices in this country +We shall be feared, if we do not show that we fear +Well dressed, not finely dressed +What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you +What displeases or pleases you in others +What you feel pleases you in them +What have I done to_day? +What is impossible, and what is only difficult +Whatever pleases you most in others +Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well +Whatever one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace' +Whatever real merit you have, other people will discover +When well dressed for the day think no more of it afterward +Where one would gain people, remember that nothing is little +Who takes warning by the fate of others? +Wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded +Will not so much as hint at our follies +Will pay very dear for the quarrels and ambition of a few +Wish you, my dear friend, as many happy new years as you deserve +Wit may created any admirers but makes few friends +Witty without satire or commonplace +Woman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased +Women are the only refiners of the merit of men +Women choose their favorites more by the ear +Women are all so far Machiavelians +Words are the dress of thoughts +World is taken by the outside of things +Would not tell what she did not know +Wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations +Writing anything that may deserve to be read +Writing what may deserve to be read +Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is +Yielded commonly without conviction +You must be respectable, if you will be respected +You had much better hold your tongue than them +Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things +Young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be +Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough +Your merit and your manners can alone raise you +Your character there, whatever it is, will get before you here + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Widger's Quotations +from Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, by David Widger + |