People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority. Lord Chesterfield
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise. Lord Chesterfield
There are some occasions when a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest. Lord Chesterfield
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least. Lord Chesterfield
It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. Lord Chesterfield
Firmness of purpose is one of the best instruments of success. Lord Chesterfield
Ridicule is the best test of truth. Lord Chesterfield
There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. Lord Chesterfield
The great, the rich, the powerful, too often bestow their favours upon their inferiors in the manner they bestow their scraps upon their dogs, so as neither to oblige man nor dogs. It is no wonder if favours, benefits, and even charities thus bestowed ungraciously, should be as coldly and faintly acknowledged. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield
Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends. Lord Chesterfield
The New Year is the season in which custom seems more particularly to authorise civil and harmless lies, under the name of compliments. People reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form and concern which they seldom feel. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield
…the House of Lords, that hospital of incurables. Lord Chesterfield
Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding. Lord Chesterfield
Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield
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. Lord Chesterfield