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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.

-Lord Chesterfield

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Vanity, Or To Call

Lord Chesterfield

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Am Very Sure That Any Man Of Common Understanding May, By Culture, Care, Attention, And Labor, Make Himself What- Ever He Pleases, Except A Great Poet.

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.

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.

Fear Manifested Invites Danger.

To Govern Mankind, One Must Not Overrate Them.

Frequent And Loud Laughter Is The Characteristic Of Folly And Ill Manners.

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

A Man's Own Good Breeding Is The Best Security Against Other People's Ill Manners.

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

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

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

Observe Any Meetings Of People, And You Will Always Find Their Eagerness And Impetuosity Rise Or Fall In Proportion To Their Numbers.

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

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.

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.

An Honest Man May Really Love A Pretty Girl, But Only An Idiot Marries Her Merely Because She Is Pretty.

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

Women's Beauty, Like Men's Wit, Is Generally Fatal To The Owners.

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

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.

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

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

Women, Then, Are Only Children Of A Larger Growth

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.

There Is Hardly Anybody Good For Everything, And There Is Scarcely Anybody Who Is Absolutely Good For Nothing.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

Ridicule Is The Best Test Of Truth.

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.

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

When I Reflect Upon What I Have Seen, What I Have Heard, What I Have Done, I Can Hardly Persuade Myself That All That Frivolous Hurry And Bustle And Pleasure Of The World Had Any Reality; And I Look On What Has Passed As One Of Those Wild Dreams Which Opium Occasions, And I By No Means Wish To Repeat The Nauseous Dose For The Sake Of The Fugitive Illusion.

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

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

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

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

I Always Put These Pert Jackanapeses Out Of Countenance By Looking Extremely Grave When They Expect That I Should Laugh At Their Pleasantries; And By Saying Well, And So?--as If They Had Not Done, And That The Sting Were Still To Come. This Disconcerts Them, As They Have No Resources In Themselves, And Have But One Set Of Jokes To Live Upon.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

The French Manner Of Hunting Is Gentlemanlike; Ours Is Only For Bumpkins And Bodies. The Poor Beasts Here Are Pursued And Run Downby Much Greater Beasts Than Themselves; And The True British Fox-hunter Is Most Undoubtedly A Species Appropriated And Peculiar To This Country, Which No Other Part Of The Globe Produces.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Sculpture And Painting Are Very Justly Called Liberal Arts; A Lively And Strong Imagination, Together With A Just Observation, Being Absolutely Necessary To Excel In Either; Which, In My Opinion, Is By No Means The Case Of Music, Though Called A Liberal Art, And Now In Italy Placed Even Above The Other Two--a Proof Of The Decline Of That Country.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Only Solid And Lasting Peace Between A Man And His Wife Is, Doubtless, A Separation.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Regularity In The Hours Of Rising And Retiring, Perseverance In Exercise, Adaptation Of Dress To The Variations Of Climate, Simple And Nutritious Aliment, And Temperance In All Things Are Necessary Branches Of The Regimen Of Health.

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.

Polished Brass Will Pass Upon More People Than Rough Gold.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

History Is But A Confused Heap Of Facts.

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.

Young Men Are Apt To Think Themselves Wise Enough, As Drunken Men Are Apt To Think Themselves Sober Enough.

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.

Cultivate The Habit Of Thinking Ahead, And Of Anticipating The Necessary And Immediate Consequences Of All Your Actions.... Likewise In Your Pleasures, Ask Yourself What Such And Such An Amusement Leads To, As It Is Essential To Have An Objective In Everything You Do. Any Pastime That Contributes Nothing To Bodily Strength Or To Mental Alertness Is A Totally Ridiculous, Not To Say, Idiotic, Pleasure.

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.

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.

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.

Experience Only Can Teach Men Not To Prefer What Strikes Them For The Present Moment, To What Will Have Much Greater Weight With The Them Hereafter.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To Please People Is A Great Step Towards Persuading Them.

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

Whatever Is Worth Doing At All Is Worth Doing Well.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Do Not Think That A Physician Should Be Admitted Into The College Till He Could Bring Proofs Of His Having Cured, In His Own Person, At Least Four Incurable Distempers.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

We Are As Often Duped By Diffidence As By Confidence.

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

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

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.

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

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

Be Your Character What It Will, It Will Be Known, And Nobody Will Take It Upon Your Word.

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.

Few Fathers Care Much For Their Sons, Or At Least, Most Of Them Care More For Their Money. Of Those Who Really Love Their Sons, Few Know How To Do It.

Vice, In Its True Light, Is So Deformed, That It Shocks Us At First Sight; And Would Hardly Ever Seduce Us, If It Did Not At First Wear The Mask Of Some Virtue.

To Write Anything Tolerable, The Mind Must Be In A Natural, Proper Disposition; Provocatives, In That Case, As Well As In Another,will Only Produce Miserable, Abortive Performances.

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

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

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.

Most People Have Ears, But Few Have Judgment; Tickle Those Ears, And Depend Upon It, You Will Catch Their Judgments, Such As They Are.

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

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.

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

The Heart Never Grows Better By Age; I Fear Rather Worse; Always Harder.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I Am Provoked At The Contempt Which Most Historians Show For Humanity In General; One Would Think By Them, That The Whole Human Species Consisted But Of About A Hundred And Fifty People, Called And Dignified (commonly Very Undeservedly Too) By The Titles Of Emperors, Kings, Popes, Generals, And Ministers.

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.

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

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.

There Is Hardly Any Place Or Any Company Where You May Not Gain Knowledge, If You Please; Almost Everybody Knows Some One Thing, And Is Glad To Talk About That One Thing.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I Love Every-day Senses, Every-day Wit And Entertainment; A Man Who Is Only Good On Holidays, Is Good For Very Little.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Many New Years You May See, But Happy Ones You Cannot See Without Deserving Them. These Virtue, Honor, And Knowledge Alone Can Merit, Alone Can Produce.

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.

A Weak Mind Is Like A Microscope, Which Magnifies Trifling Things But Cannot Receive Great Ones.

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

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

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.

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

Being Pretty On The Inside Means You Don't Hit Your Brother And You Eat All Your Peas - That's What My Grandma Taught Me.

A Man Must Have A Good Share Of Wit Himself To Endure A Great Share In Another.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Real Friendship Is A Slow Grower.

Real Friendship

Assurance And Intrepidity, Under The White Banner Of Seeming Modesty, Clear The Way For Merit, That Would Otherwise Be Discouraged By Difficulties...

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Friedrich Nietzsche

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