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Lord Chesterfield

Lord Chesterfield Quotes

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Famous Lord Chesterfield Quotes

“It is hard to say which is the greatest fool: he who tells the whole truth, or he who tells no truth at all. Character is as necessary in business as in trade. No man can deceive often in either.”

MenHardWholeCharacterTruthFoolTradeDeceivingWhole Truth
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
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“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.”

TwoCharacterSpiritCommonMinesSonMoralityDevotionJustifyTendernessSubmissionRoyaltyAdulteryThirteenAustria
Book:Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son
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“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.”

DoeCharacterAgeDarkSecretPrideBirthGayDignityTwentiesBoundsGravesMysteriousMannersFirmFrankModestyDecencyRespectfulSeemingBe Respectful
Author:Lord Chesterfield
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“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.”

MenGivingWellsMeanCharacterTogetherGrowsAttentionCompanyFashionHabitMen And WomenPaidRoughIngredientsCompositionCarelessPolitenessBreedingGood CompanyGood Breeding
Author: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.”

CharacterHandsAcceptingPureCleanGreedVicesCorruptionTransparentPublic LifeAvariceAccompanyDegradeSpecksInfamous
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
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“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.”

MenMindCharacterBodyHe ManPersonalityAccidentsEvery Man
Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author
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