Top 300 Lord Chesterfield Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Women, then, are only children of a larger growth.”

— Lord Chesterfield

152. “A gentleman is often seen, but very seldom heard to laugh.”

— Lord Chesterfield

153. “The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.”

— Lord Chesterfield

154. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

155. “May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer, or, may you rather die before you cease to be fit to live than after!”

— Lord Chesterfield

156. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

157. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

158. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

159. “When you have found out the prevailing passion of any man, remember never to trust him where that passion is concerned.”

— Lord Chesterfield

160. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

161. “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

162. “Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.”

— Lord Chesterfield

163. “Let us not only scatter benefits, but even strew flowers for our fellow-travellers, in the rugged ways of this wretched world.”

— Lord Chesterfield

164. “A man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry.”

— Lord Chesterfield

165. “The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable.”

— Lord Chesterfield

166. “In the case of scandal, as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief.”

— Lord Chesterfield

167. “Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.”

— Lord Chesterfield

168. “Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.”

— Lord Chesterfield

169. “Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners.”

— Lord Chesterfield

170. “To please people is a great step towards persuading them.”

— Lord Chesterfield

171. “The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.”

— Lord Chesterfield

172. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

173. “It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former is never forgiven, but the later is sometimes forgotten.”

— Lord Chesterfield

174. “The manner of a vulgar man has freedom without ease, and the manner of a gentleman has ease without freedom.”

— Lord Chesterfield

175. “Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you.”

— Lord Chesterfield

176. “Awkwardness is a more real disadvantage than it is generally thought to be; it often occasions ridicule, it always lessens dignity.”

— Lord Chesterfield

177. “Not to perceive the little weaknesses and the idle but innocent affectations of the company may be allowable as a sort of polite duty. The company will be pleased with you if you do, and most probably will not be reformed by you if you do not.”

— Lord Chesterfield

178. “I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide.”

— Lord Chesterfield

179. “Half the business is done, when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact it.”

— Lord Chesterfield

180. “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

181. “If you wish particularly to gain the good graces and affection of certain people, men or women, try to discover their most striking merit, if they have one, and their dominant weakness, for every one has his own, then do justice to the one, and a little more than justice to the other.”

— Lord Chesterfield

182. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

183. “You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.”

— Lord Chesterfield

184. “People will, in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you upon that which they have of your friends; and there is a Spanish proverb which says vry justly, ‘Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are.’”

— Lord Chesterfield

185. “An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.”

— Lord Chesterfield

186. “Spirit is now a very fashionable word: to act with Spirit, to speak with Spirit, means only to act rashly, and to talk indiscreetly. An able man shows his Spirit by gentle words and resolute actions; he is neither hot nor timid.”

— Lord Chesterfield

187. “Sincerity w the most compendious wisdom, an excellent instrument for the speedy despatch of business. It creates confidence in those we have to deal with, saves the labor of many inquiries, and brings things to an issue in few words.”

— Lord Chesterfield

188. “Indifference is commonly the mother of discretion.”

— Lord Chesterfield

189. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

190. “Men are much more unrolling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes; and if you hint to a man that you think him silly, ignorant, or even ill-bred or awkward, he will hate you more and longer than if you tell him plainly that you think him a rogue.”

— Lord Chesterfield

191. “Wise people may say what they will, but one passion is never cured by another.”

— Lord Chesterfield

192. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield

193. “Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and depend upon it, you will catch their judgments, such as they are.”

— Lord Chesterfield

194. “A man of fashion never has recourse to proverbs, and vulgar aphorisms; uses neither favourite words nor hard words, but takes great care to speak very correctly and grammatically, and to pronounce properly; that is, according to the usage of the best companies.”

— Lord Chesterfield

195. “There are some occasions when a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest.”

— Lord Chesterfield

196. “I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive.”

— Lord Chesterfield

197. “The more one works, the more willing one is to work.”

— Lord Chesterfield

198. “No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.”

— Lord Chesterfield

199. “A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character, and to ruin his fortune; while wine and the pox content which shall soonest and most effectually destroy his constitution.”

— Lord Chesterfield

200. “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.”

— Lord Chesterfield