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. – Lord Chesterfield
To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination. – 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
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
My greatest fear is feeling like a professional novelist. Somebody who creates characters, who sits down and has pieces of paper taped to the wall – whats going to happen in this scene, or this act. What I like is for it to be a much more scary, sloppy reflection of who I am. – Jonathan Safran Foer