39 Quotes By Lord Chesterfield


The heart never grows better by age I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.
Lord Chesterfield on age

In seeking wisdom thou art wise in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.
Lord Chesterfield on art

Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.
Lord Chesterfield on beauty

Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.
Lord Chesterfield on business

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 on experience

The heart never grows better by age I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.
Lord Chesterfield on fear

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.
Lord Chesterfield on fear

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 on fear

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.
Lord Chesterfield on fitness

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.
Lord Chesterfield on great

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.
Lord Chesterfield on health

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.
Lord Chesterfield on health

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.
Lord Chesterfield on humor

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.
Lord Chesterfield on imagination

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

Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.
Lord Chesterfield on knowledge

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
Lord Chesterfield on knowledge

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it merely to show that you have one.
Lord Chesterfield on learning

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.
Lord Chesterfield on learning

Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.
Lord Chesterfield on learning