Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison. – 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
Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold. – Lord Chesterfield
The mere brute pleasure of reading — the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. – Lord Chesterfield
As a people, we have become obsessed with Health. There is something fundamentally, radically unhealthy about all this. We do not seem to be seeking more exuberance in living as much as staving off failure, putting off dying. We have lost all confidence in the human body. – Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979