Top 300 Lord Chesterfield Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “History is but a confused heap of facts.”

— Lord Chesterfield

52. “Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.”

— Lord Chesterfield

53. “Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.”

— Lord Chesterfield

54. “The best way to compel weak-minded people to adopt our opinion, is to frighten them from all others, by magnifying their danger.”

— Lord Chesterfield

55. “Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.”

— Lord Chesterfield

56. “Pocket all your knowledge with your watch, and never pull it out in company unless desired.”

— Lord Chesterfield

57. “An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.”

— Lord Chesterfield

58. “Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others.”

— Lord Chesterfield

59. “A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.”

— Lord Chesterfield

60. “You must be respectable, if you will be respected.”

— Lord Chesterfield

61. “In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it – thou art a fool.”

— Lord Chesterfield

62. “In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.”

— Lord Chesterfield

63. “Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.”

— Lord Chesterfield

64. “For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent one, silently indeed, but very plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention.”

— Lord Chesterfield

65. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

66. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

67. “I am convinced that a light supper, a good night’s sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward.”

— Lord Chesterfield

68. “Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.”

— Lord Chesterfield

69. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

70. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

71. “Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.”

— Lord Chesterfield

72. “You must embrace the man you hate, if you cannot be justified in knocking him down.”

— Lord Chesterfield

73. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

74. “If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.”

— Lord Chesterfield

75. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

76. “People hate who makes you feel one’s inferiority.”

— Lord Chesterfield

77. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

78. “Ridicule is the best test of truth.”

— Lord Chesterfield

79. “If you have an hour, will you not improve that hour, instead of idling it away?”

— Lord Chesterfield

80. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

81. “Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.”

— Lord Chesterfield

82. “A man who cannot command his temper should not think of being a man in business.”

— Lord Chesterfield

83. “Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world.”

— Lord Chesterfield

84. “Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.”

— Lord Chesterfield

85. “Real friendship is a slow grower.”

— Lord Chesterfield

86. “Cautiously avoid speaking of the domestic affairs either of yourself, or of other people. Yours are nothing to them but tedious gossip; and theirs are nothing to you.”

— Lord Chesterfield

87. “Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.”

— Lord Chesterfield

88. “Two people cannot be alone together for upwards of half an hour without one emerging as the superior.”

— Lord Chesterfield

89. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

90. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

91. “Next to clothes being fine, they should be well made, and worn easily; for a man is only the less genteel for a fine coat, if, in wearing it, he shows a regard for it, and is not as easy in it as if it was a plain one.”

— Lord Chesterfield

92. “It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therefore one seldom does it at all.”

— Lord Chesterfield

93. “Wear your knowledge like your watch – in you pocket – and don’t pull it out just for show.”

— Lord Chesterfield

94. “Give Dayrolles a chair.”

— Lord Chesterfield

95. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

96. “Take the tone of the company you are in.”

— Lord Chesterfield

97. “Women have, in general, but ne object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.”

— Lord Chesterfield

98. “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 you not heard of such a thing? to answer, No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.”

— Lord Chesterfield

99. “The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.”

— Lord Chesterfield

100. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield