Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends. – Lord Chesterfield
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. – Lord Chesterfield
A constant smirk upon the face, and a whiffing activity of the body, are strong indications of futility. – Lord Chesterfield
Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, the steadiness of your resentment. – Lord Chesterfield
For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent one, silently indeed, but very plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention. – Lord Chesterfield
If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself. – Lord Chesterfield
He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves. – Lord Chesterfield
The scholar without good breeding is a nitpicker; the philosopher a cynic; the soldier a brute and everyone else disagreeable. – Lord Chesterfield
Style is the dress of thoughts; and let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage, and be as ill received, as your person, though ever so well-proportioned, would if dressed in rags, dirt, and tatters. – Lord Chesterfield
Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so. – Lord Chesterfield
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. – Lord Chesterfield
Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act. – Lord Chesterfield
As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless. – Lord Chesterfield
Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded. – Lord Chesterfield
Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics. – Lord Chesterfield
In the case of scandal, as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief. – Lord Chesterfield
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. – Lord Chesterfield
Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults. – Lord Chesterfield
I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive. – Lord Chesterfield
I am convinced that a light supper, a good nights sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward. – Lord Chesterfield
