Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lord Chesterfield
Lord Chesterfield

Lord Chesterfield Quotes

British Statesman

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenPeopleIfsMayWellsShouldCompanyThinkingGivingManners

Famous Lord Chesterfield Quotes

“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.”

IfsMenInterestReturnRevengeInsultComplimentBehaviourBest Revenge
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

IfsWantSuccessLossDangerDegreesGloryConsequenceIllReputationInevitable
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

GivingShouldLooksCareActionGivenEasyWaitingSubjectsOughtKingsConversationTake CareRoyaltyEtiquetteConversesWords And ActionsValet
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Create image

“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.”

MenHumansHeartDreamSeemsMightStrongBornKingsProveSpeciesDrunkFlatteryRoyaltyCradleInfancyFlatteredDrinkersHuman Species
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

KnowsLightYoungHatePassionDifficultTermViewsEnemyKnow HowLike YouBehaviorAmbitionFellowsWarmBehaveRivalsRivalry
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingHandsPowerToolsArmyAbsolutesSupporterDestroyersAbsolute PowerLodges
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

MenYearsHumansWellsI CanThreeAnimalEffortHuman NatureGeniusThousandHundredYears AgoExtraordinaryCustomsVegetablesFifteenThousand YearsWiserVary
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“The law before us, my lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use; for surely it never before was conceived by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.”

PeopleMenUseSeemsLawCausesLordPracticeEffectsTaxesDestructionRaisesAffairAdministrationAlcoholismLiquorPublic Affairs
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“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.”

PeopleBelieveHeartWishSidesOffersConsequenceHypocrisyCustomsNew YearCompliance
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

PeopleHelpingInterestEnemyFriendsBehaviorRaisesMannersDepressingBreedingMany FriendsInclineGood NatureGood BreedingConcur
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“Many young people adopt pleasures for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name.... You mustallow that drunkenness, which is equally destructive to body and mind, is a fine pleasure. Gaming, that draws you into a thousand scraps, leaves you penniless, and gives you the air and manners of an outrageous madman, is another most exquisite pleasure, is it not? As to running after women, the consequences of that vice are only the loss of one's nose, the total destruction of health, and, not unfrequently, the being run through the body.”

PeopleGivingMindBodyRunningYoungNamesLossPleasureAirFineTasteThousandDrawsConsequenceDestructionDrinkingVicesMannersNosesDestructiveGamblingMind And BodyExquisiteOutrageousMadmenDrunkennessScrapGaming
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWantReasonPainYoungCoursesPleasureRocksReturnDirectShameSufficientQuestsSplitsSailVesselCrowdedVoyagesSteers
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingActionMotivationAsksPleasureHabitEssentialsConsequenceRidiculousObjectivesAmusementPastimeIdioticAlertnessThinking AheadAlertness Is
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“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.”

WritingMayI CanCreaturesDrinkingClubsRationalGentlemanCustomsSoberCautionAdviseYou AgainSwineBeastlySipping
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Create image

“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.”

KnowsShouldArtWarDoneEnemyFriendsOughtArt IsDifficultyCivil WarConcealed
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image

“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.”

GivingShouldMadeBodyActionTogetherActorsWishPartyActingStageOughtDegreesGiving UpUnityCrowdsTheatreImpossibilityViolationExhibitsTreatiesMassacresRacksNotoriousAdherenceDeclamation
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Create image

“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.”

ShouldWellsKindMayMeanSeemsPoliticalUsedCertainSpeakCompanyOughtThousandConversationDifficultyEntertainmentOccasionsMinistersRemoveExposedJargonAll Occasions
Author:Lord Chesterfield
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingShouldBelieveSaidOrderI BelieveCommonMankindIgnoranceQuietPrejudiceNotionReasoningHerds
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
Create image