To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life. – Lord Chesterfield
A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones. – 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
I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united and when one suffers, the other sympathizes. – Lord Chesterfield
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience. – Marcus Tullius Cicero