520 Quotes by Lord Chesterfield

As kings are begotten and born like other men, it is to be presumed that they are of the human species; and perhaps, had they thesame education, they might prove like other men. But, flattered from their cradles, their hearts are corrupted, and their heads are turned, so that they seem to be a species by themselves.... Flattery cannot be too strong for them; drunk with it from their infancy, like old drinkers, they require dreams.

A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.

Idleness is the only refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools

A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

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 vry justly, 'Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are.'

Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress them, and, in truth, our own private interest concurs in it, as it is making ourselves so many friends, instead of so many enemies.

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.

I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh.

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.