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A Seeming Ignorance Is Very Often A Most Necessary Part Of Worldly Knowledge. It Is, For Instance, Commonly Advisable To Seem Ignorant Of What People Offer To Tell You; And When They Say, Have Not You Heard Of Such A Thing? To Answer No, And To Let Them Go On, Though You Know It Already.

-Lord Chesterfield

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A Seeming Ignorance Is

Lord Chesterfield

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A Seeming Ignorance Is Very Often A Most Necessary Part Of Worldly Knowledge. It Is, For Instance, Commonly Advisable To Seem Ignorant Of What People Offer To Tell You; And When They Say, Have Not You Heard Of Such A Thing? To Answer No, And To Let Them Go On, Though You Know It Already.

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To Please People Is A Great Step Towards Persuading Them.

I Heartily Wish You, In The Plain Home-spun Style, A Great Number Of Happy New Years, Well Employed In Forming Both Your Mind Andyour Manners, To Be Useful And Agreeable To Yourself, Your Country, And Your Friends.

We Are Really So Prejudiced By Our Educations, That, As The Ancients Deified Their Heroes, We Deify Their Madmen.

Manners Must Adorn Knowledge And Smooth Its Way Through The World.

Pocket All Your Knowledge With Your Watch, And Never Pull It Out In Company Unless Desired.

Modesty Is The Only Sure Bait When You Angle For Praise.

A Man Who Owes A Little Can Clear It Off In A Very Little Time, And, If He Is A Prudent Man, Will; Whereas A Man, Who By Long Negligence, Owes A Great Deal, Despairs Of Ever Being Able To Pay, And Therefore Never Looks Into His Accounts At All.

A Man Of Sense Soon Discovers, Because He Carefully Observes, Where And How Long He Is Welcome; And Takes Care To Leave The Company At Least As Soon As He Is Wished Out Of It. Fools Never Perceive Whether They Are Ill Timed Or Ill Placed.

Sincerity Is The Most Compendious Wisdom.

If Ever A Man And His Wife, Or A Man And His Mistress, Who Pass Nights As Well As Days Together, Absolutely Lay Aside All Good Breeding, Their Intimacy Will Soon Degenerate Into A Coarse Familiarity, Infallibly Productive Of Contempt Or Disgust.

You Will Find That Reason, Which Always Ought To Direct Mankind, Seldom Does; But That Passions And Weaknesses Commonly Usurp Itsseat, And Rule In Its Stead.

Speak The Language Of The Company You Are In; Speak It Purely, And Unlarded With Any Other.

I Have Seen Many People, Who While You Are Speaking To Them, Instead, Of Looking At, And Attending To You, Fix Their Eyes Upon The Ceiling, Or Some Other Part Of The Room, Look Out Of The Window, Play With A Dog, Twirl Their Snuff-box, Or Pick Their Nose. Nothing Discovers A Little, Futile, Frivolous Mind More Than This, And Nothing Is So Offensively Ill-bred.

The Possibility Of Remedying Imprudent Actions Is Commonly An Inducement To Commit Them.

Keep Your Hands Clean And Pure From The Infamous Vice Of Corruption, A Vice So Infamous That It Degrades Even The Other Vices Thatmay Accompany It. Accept No Present Whatever; Let Your Character In That Respect Be Transparent And Without The Least Speck, For As Avarice Is The Vilest And Dirtiest Vice In Private, Corruption Is So In Public Life.

Whatever You Do, Do It To The Purpose; Do It Thoroughly, Not Superficially. Go To The Bottom Of Things. Any Thing Half Done, Or Half Known, Is In My Mind, Neither Done Nor Known At All. Nay, Worse, For It Often Misleads.

Gratitude Is A Burden Upon Our Imperfect Nature.

Young Men Are As Apt To Think Themselves Wise Enough, As Drunken Men Are To Think Themselves Sober Enough. They Look Upon Spirit To Be A Much Better Thing Than Experience; Which They Call Coldness. They Are But Half Mistaken; For Though Spirit Without Experience Is Dangerous, Experience Without Spirit Is Languid And Ineffective.

There Is Time Enough For Everything In The Course Of The Day If You Do But One Thing Once; But There Is Not Time Enough In The Year If You Will Do Two Things At A Time.

Seek Always For The Best Words And The Happiest Expression You Can Find.

Persist And Persevere, And You Will Find Most Things That Are Attainable, Possible.

A Certain Degree Of Ceremony Is A Necessary Outwork Of Manners, As Well As Of Religion; It Keeps The Forward And Petulant At A Proper Distance, And Is A Very Small Restraint To The Sensible And To The Well-bred Part Of The World.

It Is Good Breeding Alone That Can Prepossess People In Your Favor At First Sight, More Time Being Necessary To Discover Greater Talents.

If You Have Wit, Use It To Please And Not To Hurt: You May Shine Like The Sun In The Temperate Zones Without Scorching.

In The Ordinary Course Of Things, How Many Succeed In Society Merely By Virtue Of Their Manners, While Others, However Meritorious, Fail Through Lack Of Them? After All, It's Only Barbarians Who Wear Uncut Precious Stones.

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Buy Good Books, And Read Them; The Best Books Are The Commonest, And The Last Editions Are Always The Best, If The Editors Are Not Blockheads.

I Am Convinced That A Light Supper, A Good Night's Sleep, And A Fine Morning, Have Sometimes Made A Hero Of The Same Man, Who, By An Indigestion, A Restless Night, And Rainy Morning, Would Have Proved A Coward.

I Could Wish There Were A Treaty Made Between The French And The English Theatres, In Which Both Parties Should Make Considerableconcessions. The English Ought To Give Up Their Notorious Violations Of The Unities, And All Their Massacres, Racks, Dead Bodies, And Mangled Carcasses, Which They So Frequently Exhibit Upon Their Stage. The French Should Engage To Have More Action, And Less Declamation, And Not To Cram And To Crowd Things Together To Almost A Degree Of Impossibility From A Too Scrupulous Adherence To The Unities.

Be Wiser Than Other People If You Can; But Do Not Tell Them So.

If You Are Not In Fashion, You Are Nobody.

Take Rather Than Give The Tone To The Company You Are In. If You Have Parts You Will Show Them More Or Less Upon Every Subject; And If You Have Not, You Had Better Talk Sillily Upon A Subject Of Other People's Than Of Your Own Choosing.

I Can Hardly Bring Myself To Caution You Against Drinking, Because I Am Persuaded That I Am Writing To A Rational Creature, A Gentleman, And Not To A Swine. However, That You May Not Be Insensibly Drawn Into That Beastly Custom Of Even Sober Drinking And Sipping, As The Sots Call It, I Advise You To Be Of No Club Whatsoever.

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Dancing Is, In Itself, A Very Trifling And Silly Thing: But It Is One Of Those Established Follies To Which People Of Sense Are Sometimes Obliged To Conform; And Then They Should Be Able To Do It Well. And Though I Would Not Have You A Dancer, Yet, When You Do Dance, I Would Have You Dance Well, As I Would Have You Do Everything You Do Well.

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The Best Way To Compel Weak-minded People To Adopt Our Opinion, Is To Frighten Them From All Others, By Magnifying Their Danger.

I Assisted At The Birth Of That Most Significant Word "flirtation," Which Dropped From The Most Beautiful Mouth In The World.

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We Are As Often Duped By Diffidence As By Confidence.

Never Write Down Your Speeches Beforehand; If You Do, You May Perhaps Be A Good Declaimer, But Will Never Be A Debater.

Few People Do Business Well, Who Do Nothing Else.

If Originally It Was Not Good For A Man To Be Alone, It Is Much Worse For A Sick Man To Be So; He Thinks Too Much Of His Distemper, And Magnifies It.

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I Look Upon Indolence As A Sort Of Suicide.

If We Do Not Plant Knowledge When Young, It Will Give Us No Shade When We Are Old.

In Business Be As Able As You Can, But Do Not Be Cunning; Cunning Is The Dark Sanctuary Of Incapacity.

Without Some Dissimulation No Business Can Be Carried On At All.

Little Vicious Minds Abound With Anger And Revenge And Are Incapable Of Feeling Te Pleasure Of Forgiving Their Enemies.

Women Are All So Far Machiavellians That They Are Never Either Good Or Bad By Halves; Their Passions Are Too Strong, And Their Reason Too Weak, To Do Anything With Moderation.

We Are In Truth, More Than Half What We Are By Imitation. The Great Point Is To Choose Good Models And To Study Them With Care.

Wise People May Say What They Will, But One Passion Is Never Cured By Another.

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Good Manners Are The Settled Medium Of Social, As Specie Is Of Commercial, Life; Returns Are Equally Expected For Both.

As Fathers Commonly Go, It Is Seldom A Misfortune To Be Fatherless; And Considering The General Run Of Sons, As Seldom A Misfortune To Be Childless.

Politicians Neither Love Nor Hate. Interest, Not Sentiment, Directs Them.

I Would Rather Have A Young Fellow Too Much Than Too Little Dressed; The Excess On That Side Will Wear Off, With A Little Age And Reflection; But If He Is Negligent At Twenty, He Will Be A Sloven At Forty, And Stink At Fifty Years Old. Dress Yourself Fine Where Others Are Fine, And Plain Where Others Are Plain; But Take Care Always That Your Clothes Are Well Made And Fit You, For Otherwise They Will Give You A Very Awkward Air.

I Have, By Long Experience, Found Women To Be Like Telephus's Spear: If One End Kills, The Other Cures.

Next To Doing Things That Deserve To Be Written, Nothing Gets A Man More Credit, Or Gives Him More Pleasure Than To Write Things That Deserve To Be Read.

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Two People Cannot Be Alone Together For Upwards Of Half An Hour Without One Emerging As The Superior.

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An Able Man Shows His Spirit By Gentle Words And Resolute Actions.

A Gentleman Has Ease Without Familiarity, Is Respectful Without Meanness; Genteel Without Affectation, Insinuating Without Seeming Art.

All Ceremonies Are In Themselves Very Silly Things; But Yet, A Man Of The World Should Know Them. They Are The Outworks Of Mannersand Decency, Which Would Be Too Often Broken In Upon, If It Were Not For That Defence, Which Keeps The Enemy At A Proper Distance.

Speak Of The Moderns Without Contempt And Of The Ancients Without Idolatry; Judge Them All By Their Merits, But Not By Their Age

The Nation Looked Upon Him As A Deserter, And He Shrunk Into Insignificancy And An Earldom.

There Is Nothing That People Bear More Impatiently, Or Forgive Less, Than Contempt: And An Injury Is Much Sooner Forgotten Than An Insult.

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Our Own Self-love Draws A Thick Veil Between Us And Our Faults.

Let Your Enemies Be Disarmed By The Gentleness Of Your Manner, But Let Them Feel At The Same Time The Steadiness Of Your Just Resentment For There Is A Great Difference Between Bearing Malice, Which Is Always Ungenerous, And A Resolute Self-defense Which Is Ever Prudent And Justifiable.

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There Never Were, Since The Creation Of The World, Two Cases Exactly Parallel.

A Young Fellow Ought To Be Wiser Than He Should Seem To Be; And An Old Fellow Ought To Seem Wise Whether He Really Be So Or Not.

Montesquieu Well Knew, And Justly Admired, The Happy Constitution Of This Country [great Britain], Where Fixed And Known Laws Equally Restrain Monarchy From Tyranny And Liberty From Licentiousness.

This Is The Day When People Reciprocally Offer, And Receive, The Kindest And The Warmest Wishes, Though, In General, Without Meaning Them On One Side, Or Believing Them On The Other. They Are Formed By The Head, In Compliance With Custom, Though Disavowed By The Heart, In Consequence Of Nature.

Give Nobly To Indigent Merit, And Do Not Refuse Your Charity Even To Those Who Have Not Merit But Their Misery.

You Must Be Respectful And Assenting, But Without Being Servile And Abject. You Must Be Frank, But Without Indiscretion, And Close, Without Being Costive. You Must Keep Up Dignity Of Character, Without The Least Pride Of Birth, Or Rank. You Must Be Gay, Within All The Bounds Of Decency And Respect; And Grave, Without The Affectation Of Wisdom, Which Does Not Become The Age Of Twenty. You Must Be Essentially Secret, Without Being Dark And Mysterious. You Must Be Firm, And Even Bold, But With Great Seeming Modesty.

In Your Friendships And In Your Enmities Let Your Confidence And Your Hostilities Have Certain Bounds; Make Not The Former Dangerous, Nor The Latter Irreconcilable. There Are Strange Vicissitudes In Business.

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.

Wrongs Are Often Forgiven; But Contempt Never Is. Our Pride Remembers It Forever.

No Woman Ever Yet Either Reasoned Or Acted Long Together Consequentially; But Some Little Thing, Some Love, Some Resentment, Somepresent Momentary Interest, Some Supposed Slight, Or Some Humour, Always Breaks In Upon, And Oversets Their Most Prudent Resolutions And Schemes.

The Rich Are Always Advising The Poor, But The Poor Seldom Return The Compliment.

One Man Affirms That He Has Rode Post A Hundred Miles In Six Hours; Probably It Is A Lie; But Supposing It To Be True, What Then? Why, He Is A Very Good Post-boy; That Is All. Another Asserts, And Probably Not Without Oaths, That He Has Drunk Six Or Eight Bottles Of Wine At A Sitting; Out Of Charity I Will Believe Him A Liar; For If I Do Not, I Must Think Him A Beast.

Few Men Are Of One Plain, Decided Color; Most Are Mixed, Shaded, And Blended; And Vary As Much, From Different Situations, As Changeable Silks Do From Different Lights.

It Is To Be Presumed, That A Man Of Common Sense, Who Does Not Desire To Please, Desires Nothing At All; Since He Must Know That He Cannot Obtain Anything Without It.

Half The Business Is Done, When One Has Gained The Heart And The Affections Of Those With Whom One Is To Transact It.

There Are Some Occasions In Which A Man Must Tell Half His Secret, In Order To Conceal The Rest: But There Is Seldom One In Which A Man Should Tell It All.

He Makes People Pleased With Him By Making Them First Pleased With Themselves.

You Must Embrace The Man You Hate, If You Cannot Be Justified In Knocking Him Down.

I Often Wish For The End Of The Wretched Remnant Of My Life; And That Wish Is A Rational One; But Then The Innate Principle Of Self-preservation, Wisely Implanted In Our Natures, For Obvious Purposes, Opposes That Wish, And Makes Us Endeavour To Spin Out Our Thread As Long As We Can, However Decayed And Rotten It May Be.

People Hate Those Who Make Them Feel Their Own Inferiority.

In My Mind, There Is Nothing So Illiberal, And So Ill-bred, As Audible Laughter.

Unlike My Subject Will I Frame My Song, It Shall Be Witty And It Shan't Be Long.

A Man Of Fashion Never Has Recourse To Proverbs, And Vulgar Aphorisms; Uses Neither Favourite Words Nor Hard Words, But Takes Great Care To Speak Very Correctly And Grammatically, And To Pronounce Properly; That Is, According To The Usage Of The Best Companies.

You Must Labour To Acquire That Great And Uncommon Talent Of Hating With Good Breeding, And Loving With Prudence; To Make No Quarrel Irreconcilable By Silly And Unnecessary Indications Of Anger; And No Friendship Dangerous, In Care It Breaks, By A Wanton, Indiscreet, And Unreserved Confidence.

Let Your Letter Be Written As Accurately As You Are Able,--i Mean With Regard To Language, Grammar, And Stops; For As To The Matter Of It The Less Trouble You Give Yourself The Better It Will Be. Letters Should Be Easy And Natural, And Convey To The Persons To Whom We Send Them Just What We Should Say To The Persons If We Were With Them.

Men Are Apt To Mistake, Or At Least To Seem To Mistake, Their Own Talents, In Hopes, Perhaps, Of Misleading Others To Allow Them That Which They Are Conscious They Do Not Possess. Thus Lord Hardwicke Valued Himself More Upon Being A Great Minister Of State, Which He Certainly Was Not, Than Upon Being A Great Magistrate, Which He Certainly Was.

The Scholar Without Good Breeding Is A Pedant; The Philosopher, A Cynic.

A Joker Is Near Akin To A Buffoon; And Neither Of Them Is The Least Related To Wit.

One Of The Greatest Difficulties In Civil War Is, That More Art Is Required To Know What Should Be Concealed From Our Friends, Than What Ought To Be Done Against Our Enemies.

It Seems To Me That Your Doctor [tronchin] Is More Of A Philosopher Than A Physician. As For Me, I Much Prefer A Doctor Who Is Anoptimist And Who Gives Me Remedies That Will Improve My Health. Philosophical Consolations Are, After All, Useless Against Real Ailments. I Know Only Two Kinds Of Sickness--physical And Moral: All The Others Are Purely In The Imagination.

Always Make The Best Of The Best, And Never Make Bad Worse.

Best Of The Best

Pleasure Is A Necessary Reciprocal. No One Feels, Who Does Not At The Same Time Give It. To Be Pleased, One Must Please. What Pleases You In Others, Will In General Please Them In You.

I Am Not Of The Opinion Generally Entertained In This Country [england], That Man Lives By Greek And Latin Alone; That Is, By Knowing A Great Many Words Of Two Dead Languages, Which Nobody Living Knows Perfectly, And Which Are Of No Use In The Common Intercourse Of Life. Useful Knowledge, In My Opinion, Consists Of Modern Languages, History, And Geography; Some Latin May Be Thrown Into The Bargain, In Compliance With Custom, And For Closet Amusement.

Horse-play, Romping, Frequent And Loud Fits Of Laughter, Jokes, And Indiscriminate Familiarity, Will Sink Both Merit And Knowledge Into A Degree Of Contempt. They Compose At Most A Merry Fellow; And A Merry Fellow Was Never Yet A Respectable Man.

Let Us Not Only Scatter Benefits, But Even Strew Flowers For Our Fellow-travellers, In The Rugged Ways Of This Wretched World.

Do As You Would Be Done By, Is The Surest Method Of Pleasing.

Women Who Are Either Indisputably Beautiful, Or Indisputably Ugly, Are Best Flattered Upon The Score Of Their Understandings; But Those Who Are In A State Of Mediocrity Are Best Flattered Upon Their Beauty, Or At Least Their Graces; For Every Woman Who Is Not Absolutely Ugly Thinks Herself Handsome.

Women Of Fashion And Character--i Do Not Mean Absolutely Unblemished--are A Necessary Ingredient In The Composition Of Good Company; The Attention Which They Require, And Which Is Always Paid Them By Well-bred Men, Keeps Up Politeness, And Gives A Habit Of Good-breeding; Whereas Men, When They Live Together Without The Lenitive Of Women In Company, Are Apt To Grow Careless, Negligent, And Rough Among One Another.

Loud Laughter Is The Mirth Of The Mob, Who Are Only Pleased With Silly Things; For True Wit Or Good Sense Never Excited A Laugh Since The Creation Of The World. A Man Of Parts And Fashion Is Therefore Often Seen To Smile, But Never Heard To Laugh.

Statesmen And Beauties Are Very Rarely Sensible Of The Gradations Of Their Decay.

The Heart Has Such An Influence Over The Understanding, That It Is Worth While To Engage It In Our Interest.

Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business.

Most Maxim-mongers Have Preferred The Prettiness To The Justness Of A Thought, And The Turn To The Truth; But I Have Refused Myself To Everything That My Own Experience Did Not Justify And Confirm.

Whenever I Go To An Opera, I Leave My Sense And Reason At The Door With My Half-guinea, And Deliver Myself Up To My Eyes And My Ears.

If You Will Please People, You Must Please Them In Their Own Way; And As You Cannot Make Them What They Should Be, You Must Take Them As They Are.

Knowledge Is A Comfortable And Necessary Retreat And Shelter For Us In An Advanced Age; And If We Do Not Plant It While Young, It Will Give Us No Shade When We Grow Old.

The Permanency Of Most Friendships Depends Upon The Continuity Of Good Fortune.

I Knew A Gentleman Who Was So Good A Manager Of His Time That He Would Not Even Lose That Small Portion Of It Which The Calls Of Nature Obliged Him To Pass In The Necessary-house; But Gradually Went Through All The Latin Poets In Those Moments.

Fear Manifested Invites Danger.

It Is By Vivacity And Wit That Man Shines In Company; But Trite Jokes And Loud Laughter Reduce Him To A Buffoon.

In Friendship, As Well As In Love, The Mind Is Often The Dupe Of The Heart.

Every Man Becomes, To A Certain Degree, What The People He Generally Converses With Are.

Women Especially As To Be Talked To As Below Men, And Above Children.

Civility, Which Is A Disposition To Accommodate And Oblige Others, Is Essentially The Same In Every Country; But Good Breeding, Asit Is Called, Which Is The Manner Of Exerting That Disposition, Is Different In Almost Every Country, And Merely Local; And Every Man Of Sense Imitates And Conforms To That Local Good Breeding Of The Place Which He Is At.

Men Will Not Believe Because They Will Not Broaden Their Minds.

Study The Heart And The Mind Of Man, And Begin With Your Own. Meditation And Reflection Must Lay The Foundation Of That Knowledge, But Experience And Practice Must, And Alone Can, Complete It.

There Is Not A More Prudent Maxim, Than To Live With One's Enemies As If They May One Day Become One's Friends; As It Commonly Happens, Sooner Or Later, In The Vicissitudes Of Political Affairs.

Enjoy Pleasures, But Let Them Be Your Own, And Then You Will Taste Them.

The Greatest Dangers Have Their Allurements, If The Want Of Success Is Likely To Be Attended With A Degree Of Glory. Middling Dangers Are Horrid, When The Loss Of Reputation Is The Inevitable Consequence Of Ill Success.

At Any Age We Must Cherish Illusions, Consolatory Or Merely Pleasant; In Youth, They Are Omnipresent; In Old Age We Must Search For Them, Or Even Invent Them. But With All That, Boredom Is Their Natural And Inevitable Accompaniment.

Know The True Value Of Time; Snatch, Seize, And Enjoy Every Moment Of It. No Idleness, No Laziness, No Procrastination: Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today.

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.'

Style Is The Dress Of Thoughts, And Let Them Be Ever So Just.

The Herd Of Mankind Can Hardly Be Said To Think; Their Notions Are Almost All Adoptive; And, In General, I Believe It Is Better That It Should Be So; As Such Common Prejudices Contribute More To Order And Quiet, Than Their Own Separate Reasonings Would Do, Uncultivated And Unimproved As They Are.

The Vulgar Only Laugh, But Never Smile; Whereas Well-bred People Often Smile, But Seldom Laugh.

How Often Should A Woman Be Pregnant? Continually, Or Hardly Ever? Or Must There Be A Certain Number Of Pregnancy Anniversaries Established By Fashion? What Do You, At The Age Of Forty-three, Have To Say On The Subject? Is It A Fact That The Laws Of Nature, Or Of The Country, Or Of Propriety, Have Ordained This Time Of Life For Sterility?

To Know A Little Of Anything Gives Neither Satisfaction Nor Credit, But Often Brings Disgrace Or Ridicule.

Religion Is By No Means A Proper Subject Of Conversation In Mixed Company; It Should Only Be Treated Among A Very Few People Of Learning, For Mutual Instruction. It Is Too Awful And Respectable A Subject To Become A Familiar One.

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.

Keep Your Own Secret, And Get Out Other People's. Keep Your Own Temper, And Artfully Warm Other People's. Counterwork Your Rivalswith Diligence And Dexterity, But At The Same Time With The Utmost Personal Civility To Them: And Be Firm Without Heat.

Good Breeding Is The Result Of Good Sense, Some Good Nature, And A Little Self-denial For The Sake Of Others.

Whoever Incites Anger Has A Strong Insurance Against Indifference.

Men, As Well As Women, Are Much Oftener Led By Their Hearts Than By Their Understandings.

Many Young People Adopt Pleasures For Which They Have Not The Least Taste, Only Because They Are Called By That Name.... You Mustallow That Drunkenness, Which Is Equally Destructive To Body And Mind, Is A Fine Pleasure. Gaming, That Draws You Into A Thousand Scraps, Leaves You Penniless, And Gives You The Air And Manners Of An Outrageous Madman, Is Another Most Exquisite Pleasure, Is It Not? As To Running After Women, The Consequences Of That Vice Are Only The Loss Of One's Nose, The Total Destruction Of Health, And, Not Unfrequently, The Being Run Through The Body.

Nothing Sharpens The Arrow Of Sarcasm So Keenly As The Courtesy That Polishes It; No Reproach Is Like That We Clothe With A Smile And Present With A Bow.

The World Can Doubtless Never Be Well Known By Theory: Practice Is Absolutely Necessary; But Surely It Is Of Great Use To A Young Man, Before He Sets Out For That Country, Full Of Mazes, Windings, And Turnings, To Have At Least A General Map Of It, Made By Some Experienced Traveler.

Cottages Have Them (falsehood And Dissimulation) As Well As Courts, Only With Worse Manners.

No Man Can Possibly Improve In Any Company For Which He Has Not Respect Enough To Be Under Some Degree Of Restraint.

If You Have An Hour, Will You Not Improve That Hour, Instead Of Idling It Away?

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.

Real Merit Of Any Kind Cannot Long Be Concealed; It Will Be Discovered, And Nothing Can Depreciate It But A Man Exhibiting It Himself. It May Not Always Be Rewarded As It Ought; But It Will Always Be Known.

Little Minds Mistake Little Objects For Great Ones, And Lavish Away Upon The Former That Time And Attention Which Only The Latterdeserve. To Such Mistakes We Owe The Numerous And Frivolous Tribe Of Insect-mongers, Shell-mongers, And Pursuers And Driers Of Butterflies, Etc. The Strong Mind Distinguishes, Not Only Between The Useful And The Useless, But Likewise Between The Useful And The Curious.

Should You Be Unfortunate Enough To Have Vices, You May, To A Certain Degree, Even Dignify Them By A Strict Observance Of Decorum;at Least They Will Lose Something Of Their Natural Turpitude.

It Is Commonly Said That Ridicule Is The Best Test Of Truth; For That It Will Not Stick Where It Is Not Just. I Deny It. A Truth Learned In A Certain Light, And Attacked In Certain Words, By Men Of Wit And Humor, May, And Often Doth, Become Ridiculous, At Least So Far, That The Truth Is Only Remembered And Repeated For The Sake Of The Ridicule.

To Me It Appears Strange That The Men Against Whom I Should Be Enabled To Bring An Action For Laying A Little Dirt At My Door, May With Impunity Drive By It Half-a-dozen Calves, With Their Tails Lopped Close To Their Bodies And Their Hinder Parts Covered With Blood.

Vulgarism In Language Is The Distinguishing Characteristic Of Bad Company, And A Bad Education. A Man Of Fashion Avoids Nothing With More Care Than That. Proverbial Expressions, And Trite Sayings, Are The Flowers Of The Rhetoric Of Vulgar Man.

Deserve A Great Deal, And You Shall Have A Great Deal; Deserve Little, And You Shall Have But A Little; And Be Good For Nothing Atall, And I Assure You, You Shall Have Nothing At All.

Every Man Is To Be Had One Way Or Another And Every Woman Almost Anyway.

So Much Are Our Minds Influenced By The Accidents Of Our Bodies, That Every Man Is More The Man Of The Day Than A Regular And Consequential Character.

Nothing Is More Dissimilar Than Natural And Acquired Politeness. The First Consists In A Willing Abnegation Of Self; The Second In A Compelled Recollection Of Others.

Sincerity W The Most Compendious Wisdom, An Excellent Instrument For The Speedy Despatch Of Business. It Creates Confidence In Those We Have To Deal With, Saves The Labor Of Many Inquiries, And Brings Things To An Issue In Few Words.

Firmness Of Purpose Is One Of The Best Instruments Of Success.

Instead Of Giving In To The Greatest Misfortune That Can Happen At My Age, Deafness, I Busy Myself In Searching Out All Possible Compensations, And I Apply Myself Much More To All The Amusements That Are Here Within My Grasp.

True Politeness Is Perfect Ease And Freedom. It Simply Consists In Treating Others Just As You Love To Be Treated Yourself.

Treating Others

The Manner Of A Vulgar Man Has Freedom Without Ease, And The Manner Of A Gentleman Has Ease Without Freedom.

The Power Of Applying Attention, Steady And Undissipated, To A Single Object, Is The Sure Mark Of Superior Genius.

Everything Is Worth Seeing Once, And The More One Sees The Less One Either Wonders Or Admires.

Take The Tone Of The Company You Are In...

Wear Your Knowledge Like Your Watch - In You Pocket - And Don't Pull It Out Just For Show.

Choose The Company Of Your Superiors Whenever You Can Have It.

In Seeking Wisdom Thou Art Wise; In Imagining That Thou Hast Attained It - Thou Art A Fool.

Whoever Is In A Hurry Shows That The Thing He Is About Is Too Big For Him.

Remember That The Wit, Humour, And Jokes Of Most Mixed Companies Are Local. They Thrive In That Particular Soil, But Will Not Often Bear Transplanting.

Men Are Much More Unwilling To Have Their Weaknesses And Their Imperfections Known Than Their Crimes.

In The Mass Of Mankind, I Fear, There Is Too Great A Majority Of Fools And Knaves; Who, Singly From Their Number, Must To A Certain Degree Be Respected, Though They Are By No Means Respectable.

Nature Has Hardly Formed A Woman Ugly Enough To Be Insensible To Flattery Upon Her Person.

Custom Has Made Dancing Sometimes Necessary For A Young Man; Therefore Mind It While You Learn It, That You May Learn To Do It Well, And Not Be Ridiculous, Though In A Ridiculous Act.

I Sometimes Give Myself Admirable Advice, But I Am Incapable Of Taking It.

Whatever Poets May Write, Or Fools Believe, Of Rural Innocence And Truth, And Of The Perfidy Of Courts, This Is Most Undoubtedly True,--that Shepherds And Ministers Are Both Men; Their Natures And Passions The Same, The Modes Of Them Only Different.

The Less One Has To Do, The Less Time One Finds To Do It In.

Let Them Show Me A Cottage Where There Are Not The Same Vices Of Which They Accuse The Courts.

Never Yield To That Temptation, Which, To Most Young Men, Is Very Strong, Of Exposing Other People's Weaknesses And Infirmities, For The Sake Either Of Diverting The Company, Or Of Showing Your Own Superiority. You May Get The Laugh On Your Side By It For The Present; But You Will Make Enemies By It For Ever; And Even Those Who Laugh With You Then, Will, Upon Reflection, Fear, And Consequently Hate You.

Ties Of Blood Are Not Always Ties Of Friendship; But Friendship Founded On Merit, On Esteem, And On Mutual Trust, Becomes More Vital And More Tender When Strengthened By The Ties Of Blood.

Business By No Means Forbids Pleasures; On The Contrary, They Reciprocally Season Each Other; And I Will Venture To Affirm, That No Man Enjoys Either In Perfection That Does Not Join Both.

The Manner Of Your Speaking Is Full As Important As The Matter, As More People Have Ears To Be Tickled Than Understandings To Judge.

Elegance Of Manner Is The Outgrowth Of Refined And Exalted Sense.

I Wish... That You Had As Much Pleasure In Following My Advice, As I Have In Giving It.

A Learned Parson, Rusting In His Cell At Oxford Or Cambridge, Will Reason Admirably Well Upon The Nature Of Man; Will Profoundly Analyze The Head, The Heart, The Reason, The Will, The Passions, The Senses, The Sentiments, And All Those Subdivisions Of We Know Not What ; And Yet, Unfortunately, He Knows Nothing Of Man... He Views Man As He Does Colours In Sir Isaac Newton's Prism, Where Only The Capital Ones Are Seen; But An Experienced Dyer Knows All Their Various Shades And Gradations, Together With The Result Of Their Several Mixtures.

There Are People Who Indulge Themselves In A Sort Of Lying, Which They Reckon Innocent, And Which In One Sense Is So; For It Hurtsnobody But Themselves. This Sort Of Lying Is The Spurious Offspring Of Vanity, Begotten Upon Folly.

Very Ugly Or Very Beautiful Women Should Be Flattered On Their Understanding, And Mediocre Ones On Their Beauty.

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