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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.

-Lord Chesterfield

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Keep Your Hands Clean

Lord Chesterfield

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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.

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Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business.

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.

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.

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

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.

Truth, But Not The Whole Truth, Must Be The Invariable Principle Of Every Man Who Hath Either Religion, Honour, Or Prudence. Thosewho Violate It, May Be Cunning, But They Are Not Able. Lies And Perfidy Are The Refuge Of Fools And Cowards.

I Would Have All Intoleration Intolerated In Its Turn.

Compliments Of Congratulation Are Always Kindly Taken, And Cost Nothing But Pen, Ink And Paper. I Consider Them As Draughts Upon Good Breeding, Where The Exchange Is Always Greatly In Favor Of The Drawer.

Congratulations

Gratitude Is A Burden Upon Our Imperfect Nature.

Vanity, Or To Call It By A Gentler Name, The Desire Of Admiration And Applause, Is, Perhaps, The Most Universal Principle Of Humanactions.... Where That Desire Is Wanting, We Are Apt To Be Indifferent, Listless, Indolent, And Inert.... I Will Own To You, Under The Secrecy Of Confession, That My Vanity Has Very Often Made Me Take Great Pains To Make Many A Woman In Love With Me, If I Could, For Whose Person I Would Not Have Given A Pinch Of Snuff.

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.

Mind Not Only What People Say, But How They Say It; And If You Have Any Sagacity, You May Discover More Truth By Your Eyes Than By Your Ears. People Can Say What They Will, But They Cannot Look Just As They Will; And Their Looks Frequently (reveal) What Their Words Are Calculated To Conceal.

An Ignorant Man Is Insignificant And Contemptible; Nobody Cares For His Company, And He Can Just Be Said To Live, And That Is All.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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

I Look Upon Indolence As A Sort Of Suicide.

A Man Who Tells Nothing, Or Who Tells All, Will Equally Have Nothing Told Him.

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

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

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

Inferiority Is What You Enjoy In Your Best Friends.

Your Best Friend

If You Are Not In Fashion, You Are Nobody.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Remember, As Long As You Live, That Nothing But Strict Truth Can Carry You Through The World, With Either Your Conscience Or Your Honor Unwounded.

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

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.

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.

It Seems To Me That Physical Sickness Softens, Just As Moral Sickness Hardens, The Heart.

Awkwardness Is A More Real Disadvantage Than It Is Generally Thought To Be; It Often Occasions Ridicule, It Always Lessens Dignity.

Few People Do Business Well, Who Do Nothing Else.

When You Have Found Out The Prevailing Passion Of Any Man, Remember Never To Trust Him Where That Passion Is Concerned.

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.

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

Treating Others

I Look Upon Indolence As A Sort Of Suicide; For The Man Is Effectually Destroyed, Though The Appetites Of The Brute May Survive.

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

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.

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.

We Are, In Truth, More Than Half What We Are By Imitation.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Whatever Is Worth Doing At All Is Worth Doing Well.

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

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.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

Remember, That When I Speak Of Pleasures I Always Mean The Elegant Pleasures Of A Rational Being, And Not The Brutal Ones Of A Swine. I Mean La Bonne Chère, Short Of Gluttony; Wine, Infinitely Short Of Drunkenness; Play, Without The Least Gaming; And Gallantry, Without Debauchery.

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.

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.

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

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

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

When One Is At Play, One Should Not Think Of One's Learning.

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

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

Mankind Is Made Up Of Inconsistencies, And No Man Acts Invariably Up To His Predominant Character. The Wisest Man Sometimes Acts Weakly, And The Weakest Sometimes Wisely.

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.

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!

Fear Invites Danger; Concealed Cowards Insult Known Ones.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He Adorned Whatever Subject He Either Spoke Or Wrote Upon, By The Most Splendid Eloquence.

The Difference Between A Man Of Sense And A Fop Is That The Fop Values Himself Upon His Dress; And The Man Of Sense Laughs At It, At The Same Time He Knows He Must Not Neglect It.

There Is A Certain Jargon, Which, In French, I Should Call Un Persiflage D'affaires, That A Foreign Minister Ought To Be Perfectlymaster Of, And May Be Used Very Advantageously At Great Entertainments, In Mixed Companies, And In All Occasions Where He Must Speak, And Should Say Nothing. Well Turned And Well Spoken, It Seems To Mean Something, Though In Truth It Means Nothing. It Is A Kind Of Political Badinage, Which Prevents Or Removes A Thousand Difficulties, To Which A Foreign Minister Is Exposed In Mixed Conversations.

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

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

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

Nothing Convinces Persons Of A Weak Understanding So Effectually, As What They Do Not Comprehend.

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.

Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today.

Good Manners, To Those One Does Not Love, Are No More A Breach Of Truth, Than "your Humble Servant," At The Bottom Of A Challengeis; They Are Universally Agreed Upon, And Understand To Be Things Of Course. They Are Necessary Guards Of The Decency And Peace Of Society.

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.

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.

The Only Sure Way Of Avoiding These Evils [vanity And Boasting] Is Never To Speak Of Yourself At All. But When, Historically, Youare Obliged To Mention Yourself, Take Care Not To Drop One Single Word That Can Directly Or Indirectly Be Construed As Fishing For Applause.

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

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.

A Man's Fortune Is Frequently Decided By His First Address. If Pleasing, Others At Once Conclude He Has Merit; But If Ungraceful, They Decide Against Him.

Pleasing Others

To Take A Wife Merely As An Agreeable And Rational Companion, Will Commonly Be Found To Be A Grand Mistake.

You Must Be Respectable, If You Will Be Respected.

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.

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

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.

When A Man Is Once In Fashion, All He Does Is Right.

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.

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.

Ceremony Is Necessary In Courts, As The Outwork And Defense Of Manners.

We Are As Often Duped By Diffidence As By Confidence.

Pleasure Is The Rock Which Most Young People Split Upon; They Launch Out With Crowded Sails In Quest Of It, But Without A Compassto Direct Their Course, Or Reason Sufficient To Steer The Vessel; For Want Of Which, Pain And Shame, Instead Of Pleasure, Are The Returns Of Their Voyage.

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

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.

Ceremonies Are The Outworks Of Manners.

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.

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

To Govern Mankind, One Must Not Overrate Them.

Ridicule Is The Best Test Of Truth.

Aim At Perfection In Everything, Though In Most Things It Is Unattainable. However, They Who Aim At It, And Persevere, Will Come Much Nearer To It Than Those Whose Laziness And Despondency Make Them Give It Up As Unattainable.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Virtue And Learning, Like Gold, Have Their Intrinsic Value: But If They Are Not Polished, They Certainly Lose A Great Deal Of Their Luster: And Even Polished Brass Will Pass Upon More People Than Rough Gold.

Inspirational Life

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

It May Be Objected, That I Am Now Recommending Dissimulation To You; I Both Own And Justify It. It Has Been Long Said: Qui Nescitdissimular Nescit Regnare: I Go Still Farther, And Say, That Without Some Dissimulation, No Business Can Be Carried On At All.

You Should Not Only Have Attention To Everything, But A Quickness Of Attention, So As To Observe At Once All The People In The Room--their Motions, Their Looks And Their Words--and Yet Without Staring At Them And Seeming To Be An Observer.

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

Deafness Produces Bizarre Effects, Reversing The Natural Order Of Things; The Interchange Of Letters Is The Conversation Of The Deaf, And The Only Link With Society. I Would Be In Despair, For Instance, Over Seeing You Speak, But, Instead, I Am Only Too Happy To Hear You Write.

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.

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.

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.

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

Love Has Been Not Unaptly Compared To The Small-pox, Which Most People Have Sooner Or Later.

The Talent Of Insinuation Is More Useful Than That Of Persuasion, As Everybody Is Open To Insinuation, But Scarce Any To Persuasion.

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

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

Anne Of Austria (with Great Submission To A Crowned Head Do I Say It) Was A B----. She Had Spirit And Courage Without Parts, Devotion Without Common Morality, And Lewdness Without Tenderness Either To Justify Or To Dignify It. Her Two Sons Were No More Lewis The Thirteen's Than They Were Mine.

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.

The Rulers Of The Earth Are All Worth Knowing; They Suggest Moral Reflections: And The Respect That One Naturally Has For God's Vice-regents Here On Earth Is Greatly Increased By Acquaintance With Them.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Polished Brass Will Pass Upon More People Than Rough Gold.

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

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

Most People Enjoy The Inferiority Of Their Best Friends.

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.

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.

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.

The Most Ignorant Are The Boldest Conjecturers.

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

Second-rate Knowledge, And Middling Talents, Carry A Man Farther At Courts, And In The Busy Part Of The World, Than Superior Knowledge And Shining Parts.

Whenever A Man Seeks Your Advice He Generally Seeks Your Praise.

People Hate Who Makes You Feel One's Inferiority.

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.

Hear One Side And You Will Be In The Dark. Hear Both And All Will Be Clear.

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.

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

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.

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

Best Of The Best

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.

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.

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

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.

Sincerity Is The Most Compendious Wisdom.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Since Attaining The Full Use Of My Reason No One Has Ever Heard Me Laugh.

Advice Is Seldom Welcome, And Those Who Need It The Most, Like It The Least.

If A Man, Notoriously And Designedly, Insults And Affronts You, Knock Him Down; But If He Only Injures You, Your Best Revenge Is To Be Extremely Civil To Him In Your Outward Behaviour, Though At The Same Time You Counterwork Him, And Return Him The Compliment, Perhaps With Interest.

Man Is More Himself, Man Is More Manlike, When Joy Is The Fundamental Thing In Him, And Grief The Superficial.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

A Foreign Minister, I Will Maintain It, Can Never Be A Good Man Of Business If He Is Not An Agreeable Man Of Pleasure Too. Half His Business Is Done By The Help Of His Pleasures: His Views Are Carried On, And Perhaps Best, And Most Unsuspectedly, At Balls, Suppers, Assemblies, And Parties Of Pleasure; By Intrigues With Women, And Connections Insensibly Formed With Men, At Those Unguarded Hours Of Amusement.

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

Women, Then, Are Only Children Of A Larger Growth

Armies, Though Always The Supporters And Tools Of Absolute Power For The Time Being, Are Always The Destroyers Of It Too; By Frequently Changing The Hands In Which They Think Proper To Lodge It.

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.

The Receipt To Make A Speaker, And An Applauded One Too, Is Short And Easy. Take Common Sense Quantum Sufficit; Add A Little Application To The Rules And Orders Of The House [of Commons], Throw Obvious Thoughts In A New Light, And Make Up The Whole With A Large Quantity Of Purity, Correctness And Elegancy Of Style. Take It For Granted That By Far The Greatest Part Of Mankind Neither Analyze Nor Search To The Bottom; They Are Incapable Of Penetrating Deeper Than The Surface.

Never Hold Anyone By The Button Or The Hand In Order To Be Heard Out; For If People Are Unwilling To Hear You, You Had Better Hold Your Tongue Than Them.

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.

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

Choose Your Pleasures For Yourself, And Do Not Let Them Be Imposed Upon You.

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

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 Young Leading The Young, Is Like The Blind Leading The Blind; "they Will Both Fall Into The Ditch.

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.

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.

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