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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.

-Lord Chesterfield

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I Can Hardly Bring

Lord Chesterfield

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

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.

A Proper Secrecy Is The Only Mystery Of Able Men; Mystery Is The Only Secrecy Of Weak And Cunning Ones.

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A Man Of The Best Parts And Greatest Learning, If He Does Not Know The World By His Own Experience And Observation, Will Be Very Absurd, And Consequently Very Unwelcome In Company. He May Say Very Good Things; But They Will Be Probably So Ill-timed, Misplaced, Or Improperly Addressed, That He Had Much Better Hold His Tongue.

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It Is Often More Necessary To Conceal Contempt Than Resentment; The Former Is Never Forgiven, But The Later Is Sometimes Forgotten.

Women Who Are Either Indisputably Beautiful, Or Indisputably Ugly, Are Best Flattered Upon The Score Of Their Understandings.

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.

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.

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.

When Griefs Are Genuine, I Find, There Is Nothing More Vacuous, More Burdensome, Or Even More Impertinent, Than Letters Of Consolation.

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The Value Of Moments, When Cast Up, Is Immense, If Well Employed; If Thrown Away, Their Loss Is Irrecoverable.

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.

Common Sense (which, In Truth, Is Very Uncommon) Is The Best Sense I Know Of: Abide By It; It Will Counsel You Best.

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.

Good Humor Is The Health Of The Soul, Sadness Is Its Poison.

Swift Speedy Time, Feathered With Flying Hours, Dissolves The Beauty Of The Fairest Brow.

Great Merit Or Great Failings Will Make You Respected Or Despised; But Trifles, Little Attentions, Mere Nothings, Either Done Or Neglected, Will Make You Either Liked Or Disliked, In The General Run Of The World. Examine Yourself, Why You Like Such And Such People And Dislike Such And Such Others; And You Will Find That Those Different Sentiments Proceed From Very Slight Causes.

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.

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

A Wise Man Will Live As Much Within His Wit As Within His Income.

All I Can Say, In Answer To This Kind Queries [of Friends] Is That I Have Not The Distemper Called The Plague; But That I Have Allthe Plagues Of Old Age, And Of A Shattered Carcase.

Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business.

I Recommend To You To Take Care Of The Minutes; For Hours Will Take Care Of Themselves. I Am Very Sure, That Many People Lose Two Or Three Hours Every Day, By Not Taking Care Of The Minutes.

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.

Men Have Various Subjects In Which They May Excel, Or At Least Would Be Thought To Excel, And Though They Love To Hear Justice Done To Them Where They Know They Excel, Yet They Are Most And Best Flattered Upon Those Points Where They Wish To Excel And Yet Are Doubtful Whether They Do Or Not.

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

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

One Should Always Think Of What One Is About; When One Is Learning, One Should Not Think Of Play; And When One Is At Play, One Should Not Think Of Learning.

Those Who Travel Heedlessly From Place To Place, Observing Only Their Distance From Each Other, And Attending Only To Their Accommodation At The Inn At Night, Set Out Fools, And Will Certainly Return So

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.

Our Conjectures Pass Upon Us For Truths; We Will Know What We Do Not Know, And Often, What We Cannot Know: So Mortifying To Our Pride Is The Base Suspicion Of Ignorance.

Keep Carefully Not Of All Scrapes And Quarrels. They Lower A Character Extremely; And Are Particularly Dangerous In France, Wherea Man Is Dishonoured By Not Resenting An Affront, And Utterly Ruined By Resenting It.

People Hate Who Makes You Feel One's Inferiority.

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

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

When A Person Is In Fashion, All They Do Is Right.

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Real Friendship Is A Slow Grower.

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If You Are Not In Fashion, You Are Nobody.

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.

Lady ---- Is Safely Delivered Of A Son, To The Great Joy Of That Noble Family. The Expression, Of A Woman's Having Brought Her Husband A Son, Seems To Be A Proper And Cautious One; For It Is Never Said, From Whence.

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

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.

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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.

I Have Been Too Long Acquainted With Human Nature To Have Great Regard For Human Testimony; And A Very Great Degree Of Probability, Supported By Various Concurrent Circumstances, Conspiring In One Point, Will Have Much Greater Weight With Me, Than Human Testimony Upon Oath, Or Even Upon Honour; Both Of Which I Have Frequently Seen Considerably Warped By Private Views.

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

Singularity Is Only Pardonable In Old Age And Retirement; I May Now Be As Singular As I Please, But You May Not.

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.

I Really Know Nothing More Criminal, More Mean, And More Ridiculous Than Lying. It Is The Production Either Of Malice, Cowardice, Or Vanity; And Generally Misses Of Its Aim In Every One Of These Views; For Lies Are Always Detected, Sooner Or Later.

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Sex: The Pleasure Is Momentary, The Position Ridiculous, And The Expense Damnable.

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There Is A Sort Of Veteran Women Of Condition, Who, Having Lived Always In The Grand Mode, And Having Possibly Had Some Gallantries, Together With The Experience Of Five And Twenty Or Thirty Years, Form A Young Fellow Better Than All The Rules That Can Be Given Him.

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Distrust Those Who Love You Extremely Upon A Slight Acquaintance, And Without Any Visible Reason.

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The World Is A Country Which Nobody Ever Yet Knew By Description; One Must Travel Through It One's Self To Be Acquainted With It.

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Firmness Of Purpose Is One Of The Most Necessary Sinews Of Character, And One Of The Best Instruments Of Success. Without It, Genius Wastes Its Efforts In A Maze Of Inconsistencies.

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

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

In The Case Of Scandal, As In That Of Robbery, The Receiver Is Always Thought As Bad As The Thief.

Artichoke: That Vegetable Of Which One Has More At The Finish Than At The Start Of Dinner.

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No Man Tastes Pleasures Truly, Who Does Not Earn Them By Previous Business; And Few People Do Business Well, Who Do Nothing Else.

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

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

Cardinal Mazarin Was A Great Knave, But No Great Man; Much More Cunning Than Able; Scandalously False And Dirtily Greedy.

Little Secrets Are Commonly Told Again, But Great Ones Generally Kept.

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

Talk Often, But Never Long; In That Case, If You Do Not Please, At Least You Are Sure Not To Tire Your Hearers. Pay Your Own Reckoning, But Do Not Treat The Whole Company; This Being One Of The Few Cases In Which People Do Not Care To Be Treated, Every One Being Fully Convinced That He Has Wherewithal To Pay.

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.

Precious Stones

Were You To Converse With A King, You Ought To Be As Easy And Unembarrassed As With Your Own Valet-de Chambre; But Yet Every Look,word, And Action Should Imply The Utmost Respect.... You Must Wait Till You Are Spoken To; You Must Receive, Not Give, The Subject Of Conversation, And You Must Even Take Care That The Given Subject Of Such Conversation Do Not Lead You Into Any Impropriety.

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

Whoever Plays Deep Must Necessarily Lose His Money Or His Character.

Most Arts Require Long Study And Application, But The Most Useful Art Of All, That Of Pleasing, Requires Only The Desire.

Our Self-love Is Mortified, When We Think Our Opinions, And Even Our Tastes, Customs, And Dresses, Either Arraigned Or Condemned;as, On The Contrary, It Is Tickled And Flattered By Approbation.

Our Prejudices Are Our Mistresses; Reason Is At Best Our Wife, Very Often Heard Indeed, But Seldom Minded.

Arbitrary Power Has Seldom... Been Introduced In Any Country At Once. It Must Be Introduced By Slow Degrees, And As It Were Step By Step.

Lord Tyrawley And I Have Been Dead These Two Years, But We Don't Choose To Have It Known.

The Most Familiar And Intimate Habitudes, Connections, Friendships, Require A Degree Of Good-breeding Both To Preserve And Cement Them.

Good-breeding Carries Along With It A Dignity That Is Respected By The Most Petulant. Ill-breeding Invites And Authorizes The Familiarity Of The Most Timid.

It Must Be Owned, That The Graces Do Not Seem To Be Natives Of Great Britain; And I Doubt, The Best Of Us Here Have More Of Rough Than Polished Diamond.

Endeavor, As Much As You Can, To Keep Company With People Above You.... Do Not Mistake, When I Say Company Above You, And Think That I Mean With Regard To Their Birth; That Is The Least Consideration; But I Mean With Regard To Their Merit, And The Light In Which The World Considers Them.

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.

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

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

Insult To Injury

A Wise Man Will Live As Much Within His Wit As His Income.... Bear This Truth Always In Your Mind, That You May Be Admired For Your Wit, If You Have Any; But That Nothing But Good Sense And Good Qualities Can Make You Be Loved.

Manners Must Adorn Knowledge And Smooth Its Way In The World, Without Them It Is Like A Great Rough Diamond, Very Well In A Closet By Way Of Curiosity, And Also For Its Intrinsic Value; But Most Prized When Polished.

In Nature The Most Violent Passions Are Silent; In Tragedy They Must Speak And Speak With Dignity Too.

You Must Look Into People, As Well As At Them.

There Is Nothing So Necessary, But At The Same Time There Is Nothing More Difficult (i Know It By Experience) For You Young Fellows, Than To Know How To Behave Yourselves Prudently Towards Those Whom You Do Not Like. Your Passions Are Warm, And Your Heads Are Light; You Hate All Those Who Oppose Your Views, Either Of Ambition Or Love; And A Rival, In Either, Is Almost A Synonymous Term For Any Enemy.

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.

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.

Words Are The Dress Of Thoughts; Which Should No More Be Presented In Rags, Tatters, And Dirt Than Your Person Should.

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.

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

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.

Polished Brass Will Pass Upon More People Than Rough Gold.

Knowledge May Give Weight, But Accomplishments Give Luster, And Many More People See Than Weigh.

Any Affectation Whatsoever In Dress Implies, In My Mind, A Flaw In The Understanding.

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

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.

Prepare Yourself For The World, As Athletes Used To Do For Their Exercises; Oil Your Mind And Your Manners, To Give Them The Necessary Suppleness And Flexibility; Strength Alone Will Not Do.

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.

I Am Grown Old, And Have Possibly Lost A Great Deal Of That Fire, Which Formerly Made Me Love Fire In Others At Any Rate, And However Attended With Smoke: But Now I Must Have All Sense, And Cannot, For The Sake Of Five Righteous Lines, Forgive A Thousand Absurd Ones.

Fear Manifested Invites Danger.

Indifference Is Commonly The Mother Of Discretion.

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.

To Please People Is A Great Step Towards Persuading Them.

If A Marriage Is Going To Work Well, It Must Be On A Solid Footing, Namely Money, And Of That Commodity It Is The Girl With The Smallest Dowry Who, To My Knowledge, Consumes The Most, To Infuriate Her Husband. All The Same, It Is Only Fair That The Marriage Should Pay For Past Pleasures, Since It Will Scarcely Procure Any In The Future.

Knowledge Of The World In Only To Be Acquired In The World, And Not In A Closet.

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.

Not To Care For Philosophy Is To Be A True Philospher.

Physical Ills Are The Taxes Laid Upon This Wretched Life; Some Are Taxed Higher, And Some Lower, But All Pay Something.

If You Can Once Engage People's Pride, Love, Pity, Ambition (or Whatever Is Their Prevailing Passion) On Your Side, You Need Not Fear What Their Reason Can Do Against You.

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

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.

Women Have, In General, But Ne Object, Which Is Their Beauty; Upon Which, Scarce Any Flattery Is Too Gross For Them To Swallow.

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

Treating Others

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.

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 Insolent Civility Of A Proud Man Is, If Possible, More Shocking Than His Rudeness Could Be; Because He Shows You, By His Manner, That He Thinks It Mere Condescension In Him; And That His Goodness Alone Bestows Upon You What You Have No Pretense To Claim.

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

The New Year Is The Season In Which Custom Seems More Particularly To Authorize Civil And Harmless Lies, Under The Name Of Compliments. People Reciprocally Profess Wishes Which They Seldom Form And Concern Which They Seldom Feel.

Smooth Your Way To The Head Through The Heart. The Way Of Reason Is A Good One: But It Is Commonly Something Longer, And Perhapsnot So Sure.

If You Love Music Hear It; Go To Operas, Concerts, And Pay Fiddlers To Play To You; But I Insist Upon Your Neither Piping Nor Fiddling Yourself. It Puts A Gentleman In A Very Frivolous, Contemptible Light; Brings Him Into A Great Deal Of Bad Company; And Takes Up A Great Deal Of Time, Which Might Be Much Better Employed.

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.

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.

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

All I Desire For My Own Burial, Is Not To Be Buried Alive; But How Or Where, I Think, Must Be Entirely Indifferent To Every Rational Creature.

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

Without Any Extraordinary Effort Of Genius, I Have Discovered That Nature Was The Same Three Thousand Years Ago As At Present; That Men Were But Men Then As Well As Now; That Modes And Customs Vary Often, But That Human Nature Is Always The Same. And I Can No More Suppose, That Men Were Better, Braver, Or Wiser, Fifteen Hundred Or Three Thousand Years Ago, Than I Can Suppose That The Animals Or Vegetables Were Better Than They Are Now.

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.

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.

Learn To Shrink Yourself To The Size Of The Company You Are In. Take Their Tone, Whatever It May Be, And Excell In It If You Can;but Never Pretend To Give The Tone. A Free Conversation Will No More Bear A Dictator Than A Free Government Will.

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.

A Man Who Cannot Command His Temper, His Attention, And His Countenance Should Not Think Of Being A Man Of Business.

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.

Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business, And Nothing Contributes More To Dispatch Than Method.

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

Whoever Incites Anger Has A Strong Insurance Against Indifference.

In The Course Of The World, A Man Must Very Often Put On An Easy, Frank Countenance, Upon Very Disagreeable Occasions; He Must Seem Pleased, When He Is Very Much Otherwise; He Must Be Able To Accost And Receive With Smiles, Those Whom He Would Much Rather Meet With Swords.

A Cheerful, Easy, Open Countenance Will Make Fools Think You A Good-natured Man, And Make Designing Men Think You An Undesigning One.

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

Remember That Whatever Knowledge You Do Not Solidly Lay The Foundation Of Before You Are Eighteen, You Will Never Be Master Of While You Breathe.

Silence And Reserve Suggest Latent Power. What Some Men Think Has More Effect Than What Others Say.

We Are Hardly Ever Grateful For A Fine Clock Or Watch When It Goes Right, And We Pay Attention To It Only When It Falters, For Then We Are Caught By Surprise. It Ought To Be The Other Way About.

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.

Let This Be One Invariable Rule Of Your Conduct--never To Show The Least Symptom Of Resentment, Which You Cannot, To A Certain Degree, Gratify; But Always To Smile, Where You Cannot Strike.

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

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.

Either A Good Or A Bad Reputation Outruns And Gets Before People Wherever They Go.

Human Condition

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.

It Is Reported Here That The King Of Prussia Has Gone Mad And Has Been Locked Up. There Would Be Nothing Bad About That: At Leastthat Might Of His Would No Longer Be A Menace, And You Could Breathe Freely For A While. I Much Prefer Madmen Who Are Locked Up To Those Who Are Not.

I Am In The Pitiable Situation Of Feeling All The Force Of Temptation Without Having The Strength To Succumb To It.

May You Live As Long As You Are Fit To Live, But No Longer, Or, May You Rather Die Before You Cease To Be Fit To Live Than After!

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.

To Have Frequent Recourse To Narrative Betrays Great Want Of Imagination.

A Certain Degree Of Fear Produces The Same Effects As Rashness.

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

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

Best Of The Best

The Vulgar Look Upon A Man, Who Is Reckoned A Fine Speaker, As A Phenomenon, A Supernatural Being, And Endowed With Some Peculiargift Of Heaven; They Stare At Him, If He Walks In The Park, And Cry, That Is He. You Will, I Am Sure, View Him In A Juster Light, And Nulla Formidine. You Will Consider Him Only As A Man Of Good Sense, Who Adorns Common Thoughts With The Graces Of Elocution, And The Elegancy Of Style. The Miracle Will Then Cease.

Supernatural Beings

A Gentleman Is Often Seen, But Very Seldom Heard To Laugh.

Merit And Knowledge Will Not Gain Hearts, Though They Will Secure Them When Gained.

Absolute Power Can Only Be Supported By Error, Ignorance And Prejudice.

A Judicious Reticence Is Hard To Learn, But It Is One Of The Great Lessons Of Life.

A Rake Is A Composition Of All The Lowest, Most Ignoble, Degrading, And Shameful Vices; They All Conspire To Disgrace His Character, And To Ruin His Fortune; While Wine And The Pox Content Which Shall Soonest And Most Effectually Destroy His Constitution.

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.

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.

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

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

People Hate Those Who Make Them Feel Their Own Inferiority.

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

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