The Project Gutenberg eBook of Widger's Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Lord Chesterfield

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Title: Widger's Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Lord Chesterfield

Author: Earl of Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

Editor: David Widger

Release date: November 1, 2002 [eBook #3531]

Most recently updated: January 8, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3531

Credits: This etext was produced by David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS FROM THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EDITIONS OF THE WORKS OF LORD CHESTERFIELD ***

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This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>

WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS

FROM THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EDITION OF LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON

by David Widger

CONTENTS:

The Entire PG Edition of Chesterfield …..[LC#11][lcewk10.txt]3261

Complete Letters to His Son ……………[LC#11][lc11s10.txt]3361

Letters To His Son 1766-71, ……………[LC#10][lc10s10.txt]3360

Letters To His Son 1759-65, ……………[LC#09][lc09s10.txt]3359

Letters To His Son 1756-58, ……………[LC#08][lc08s10.txt]3358

Letters To His Son 1753-54, ……………[LC#07][lc07s10.txt]3357

Letters To His Son 1752, ………………[LC#06][lc06s10.txt]3356

Letters To His Son 1751, ………………[LC#05][lc05s10.txt]3355

Letters To His Son 1750, ………………[LC#04][lc04s10.txt]3354

Letters To His Son 1749, ………………[LC#03][lc03s10.txt]3353

Letters To His Son 1748, ………………[LC#02][lc02s10.txt]3352

Letters To His Son 1746-47, ……………[LC#01][lc01s10.txt]3351

EDITOR'S NOTE

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The editor may be contacted at <widger@cecomet.net> for comments, questions or suggested additions to these extracts.

D.W.

WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1746-47

[LC#01][lc01sxxx.xxx]3351

DEAR BOY: There is nothing which I more wish that you should know, and which fewer people do know, than the true use and value of time. It is in everybody's mouth; but in few people's practice.

Have a real reserve with almost everybody; and have a seeming reserve with almost nobody; for it is very disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so. Few people find the true medium; many are ridiculously mysterious and reserved upon trifles; and many imprudently communicative of all they know.

There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt; and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; (they will both fall into the ditch.) The only sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to go.

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 very justly, TELL ME WHO YOU LIVE WITH AND I

WILL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE!

Attention and civility please all

Avoid singularity

Blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied

Choose your pleasures for yourself

Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others

Complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses

Contempt

Disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so

Do as you would be done by

Do what you are about

Dress well, and not too well

Dress like the reasonable people of your own age

Easy without too much familiarity

Employ your whole time, which few people do

Exalt the gentle in woman and man—above the merely genteel

Eyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut

Fit to live—or not live at all

Flexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world

Genteel without affectation

Geography and history are very imperfect separately

Good-breeding

Gratitude not being universal, nor even common

Greatest fools are the greatest liars

He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds

If once we quarrel, I will never forgive

Injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult

Judge of every man's truth by his degree of understanding

Knowing any language imperfectly

Knowledge: either despise it, or think that they have enough

Labor is the unavoidable fatigue of a necessary journey

Let nothing pass till you understand it

Life of ignorance is not only a very contemptible, but tiresome

Listlessness and indolence are always blameable

Make a great difference between companions and friends

Make himself whatever he pleases, except a good poet

Merit and good-breeding will make their way everywhere

Never maintain an argument with heat and clamor

Observe, without being thought an observer

Only doing one thing at a time

Pay them with compliments, but not with confidence

Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon

Pride of being the first of the company

Real friendship is a slow grower

Receive them with great civility, but with great incredulity

Recommend (pleasure) to you, like an Epicurean

Respectful without meanness, easy without too much familiarity

Scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow

Sentiment-mongers

State your difficulties, whenever you have any

Studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world

Sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to

Talk of natural affection is talking nonsense

Nothing so precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost

Unguarded frankness

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well

Wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1748

[LC#02][lc02sxxx.xxx]3352

They go abroad, as they call it; but, in truth, they stay at home all that while; for being very awkward, confoundedly ashamed, and not speaking the languages.

If, therefore, you would avoid the accusation of pedantry on one hand, or the suspicion of ignorance on the other, abstain from learned ostentation.

Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.

Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it, it will counsel you best.

La Rochefoucault, is, I know, blamed, but I think without reason, for deriving all our actions from the source of self-love. For my own part, I see a great deal of truth, and no harm at all, in that opinion. It is certain that we seek our own happiness in everything we do.

A little learning is a dangerous thing

Above all things, avoid speaking of yourself

Above the frivolous as below the important and the secret

Absolute command of your temper

Abstain from learned ostentation

Absurd term of genteel and fashionable vices

Advice is seldom welcome

Affectation in dress

Always look people in the face when you speak to them

Ancients and Moderns

Argumentative, polemical conversations

As willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody

Authority

Better not to seem to understand, than to reply

Cannot understand them, or will not desire to understand them

Cardinal de Retz

Cardinal Virtues, by first degrading them into weaknesses

Cautious how we draw inferences

Chameleon, be able to take every different hue

Cheerful in the countenance, but without laughing

Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon)

Commonplace observations

Complaisance

Consciousness and an honest pride of doing well

Contempt

Conversation will help you almost as much as books

Conversation-stock being a joint and common property

Converse with his inferiors without insolence

Deserve a little, and you shall have but a little

Desirous of praise from the praiseworthy

Dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie

Difficulties seem to them, impossibilities

Distinguish between the useful and the curious

Do as you would be done by

Do what you will but do something all day long

Either do not think, or do not love to think

Equally forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy

Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful

Every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness

Fiddle-faddle stories, that carry no information along with them

Flattery of women

Forge accusations against themselves

Forgive, but not approve, the bad.

Frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior

Gain the affections as well as the esteem

Generosity often runs into profusion

Go to the bottom of things

Good company

Graces: Without us, all labor is vain

Great learning; which, if not accompanied with sound judgment

Great numbers of people met together, animate each other

Habit and prejudice

Half done or half known

Hardly any body good for every thing

Have a will and an opinion of your own, and adhere to it

Have but one set of jokes to live upon

He will find it out of himself without your endeavors

Heart has such an influence over the understanding

Helps only, not as guides

Historians

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed

Honestest man loves himself best

How much you have to do; and how little time to do it in

I hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear alternately

I shall always love you as you shall deserve.

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself

Impertinent insult upon custom and fashion

Inaction at your age is unpardonable

Jealous of being slighted

Judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages

Keep good company, and company above yourself

Know their real value, and how much they are generally overrated

Knowledge is like power in this respect

Knowledge of a scholar with the manners of a courtier

Laughing, I must particularly warn you against it

Lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind

Let me see more of you in your letters

Little minds mistake little objects for great ones

Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob

Low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite laughter

Low company, most falsely and impudently, call pleasure

Luther's disappointed avarice

Make yourself necessary

Manner of doing things is often more important

Manners must adorn knowledge

May not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned

More one sees, the less one either wonders or admires

More you know, the modester you should be

Mortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank, fortune

Most long talkers single out some one unfortunate man in company

Much sooner forgive an injustice than an insult

Mystical nonsense

Name that we leave behind at one place often gets before us

Neglect them in little things, they will leave you in great

Negligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing

Neither retail nor receive scandal willingly

Never quit a subject till you are thoroughly master of it

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with

Never slattern away one minute in idleness

Never to speak of yourself at all

Not one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all

Not to admire anything too much

Oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings

Out of livery; which makes them both impertinent and useless

Overvalue what we do not know

Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company

People angling for praise

People never desire all till they have gotten a great deal

Plain notions of right and wrong

Planted while young, that degree of knowledge now my refuge

Pleased to some degree by showing a desire to please

Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in yourself

Pleasure and business with equal inattention

Prefer useful to frivolous conversations

Pride remembers it forever

Prudent reserve

Reason ought to direct the whole, but seldom does

Refuge of people who have neither wit nor invention of their own

Refuse more gracefully than other people could grant

Repeating

Represent, but do not pronounce

Rochefoucault

Rough corners which mere nature has given to the smoothest

Scandal: receiver is always thought, as bad as the thief

Scarcely any body who is absolutely good for nothing

Scrupled no means to obtain his ends

Secrets

Seeming frankness with a real reserve

Seeming openness is prudent

Self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults

Serious without being dull

Shakespeare

Shepherds and ministers are both men

Some complaisance and attention to fools is prudent

Some men pass their whole time in doing nothing

Something or other is to be got out of everybody

Swearing

Take nothing for granted, upon the bare authority of the author

Take, rather than give, the tone of the company you are in

Talk often, but never long

Talk sillily upon a subject of other people's

Talking of either your own or other people's domestic affairs

Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are

Tell stories very seldom

The best have something bad, and something little

The worst have something good, and sometimes something great

Thin veil of Modesty drawn before Vanity

Thoroughly, not superficially

To know people's real sentiments, I trust much more to my eyes

Unopened, because one title in twenty has been omitted

Value of moments, when cast up, is immense

Vanity, that source of many of our follies

What displeases or pleases you in others

What you feel pleases you in them

When well dressed for the day think no more of it afterward

Will not so much as hint at our follies

Witty without satire or commonplace

Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is

You had much better hold your tongue than them

Your merit and your manners can alone raise you

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1749

[LC#03][lc03sxxx.xxx]3353

He always does more than he says.

The arrogant pedant does not communicate, but promulgates his knowledge. He does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you; and is(if possible) more desirous to show you your own ignorance than his own learning.

Due attention to the inside of books, and due contempt for the outside, is the proper relation between a man of sense and his books.

Cardinal de Retz observes, very justly, that every numerous assembly is a mob, influenced by their passions, humors, and affections, which nothing but eloquence ever did or ever can engage.

Frivolous curiosity about trifles, and a laborious attention to little objects which neither require nor deserve a moment's thought, lower a man; who from thence is thought (and not unjustly) incapable of greater matters.

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.

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!

A joker is near akin to a buffoon

Ablest man will sometimes do weak things

Above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them

Advise those who do not speak elegantly, not to speak

Always does more than he says

Always some favorite word for the time being

Arrogant pedant

Ascribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes

Assign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions

Attend to the objects of your expenses, but not to the sums

Attention to the inside of books

Awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions

Being in the power of every man to hurt him

Can hardly be said to see what they see

Cardinal Mazarin

Cardinal Richelieu

Complaisance due to the custom of the place

Conjectures supply the defect of unattainable knowledge

Connive at knaves, and tolerate fools

Deep learning is generally tainted with pedantry

Deepest learning, without good-breeding, is unwelcome

Desirous of pleasing

Dictate to them while you seem to be directed by them

Dissimulation is only to hide our own cards

Do not become a virtuoso of small wares

Does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you

Endeavors to please and oblige our fellow-creatures

Every man pretends to common sense

Every numerous assembly is a mob

Eyes and the ears are the only roads to the heart

Few dare dissent from an established opinion

Few things which people in general know less, than how to love

Flattering people behind their backs

Fools never perceive where they are ill-timed

Friendship upon very slight acquaintance

Frivolous curiosity about trifles

Frivolous, idle people, whose time hangs upon their own hands

Gain the heart, or you gain nothing

General conclusions from certain particular principles

Good manners

Haste and hurry are very different things

Herd of mankind can hardly be said to think

Human nature is always the same

Hurt those they love by a mistaken indulgence

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds

If I don't mind his orders he won't mind my draughts

Inattentive, absent; and distrait

Incontinency of friendship among young fellows

Indiscriminate familiarity

Inquisition

Insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself

Insolent civility

It is not sufficient to deserve well; one must please well too

Know the true value of time

Known people pretend to vices they had not

Knows what things are little, and what not

Learn, if you can, the WHY and the WHEREFORE

Leave the company, at least as soon as he is wished out of it

Led, much oftener by little things than by great ones

Little failings and weaknesses

Love with him, who they think is the most in love with them

Machiavel

Mastery of one's temper

May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer!

May you rather die before you cease to be fit to live

Moderation with your enemies

Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears

Never implicitly adopt a character upon common fame

Never would know anything that he had not a mind to know

No man is distrait with the man he fears, or the woman he loves

Nothing in courts is exactly as it appears to be

Our understandings are generally the DUPES of our hearts

People will repay, and with interest too, inattention

Perfection of everything that is worth doing at all

POLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE

Public speaking

Quietly cherished error, instead of seeking for truth

Reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form

Reserve with your friends

Six, or at most seven hours sleep

Sooner forgive an injury than an insult

There are many avenues to every man

Those who remarkably affect any one virtue

Three passions that often put honesty to most severe trials

To great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness

Trifling parts, with their little jargon

Truth leaves no room for compliments

We have many of those useful prejudices in this country

Whatever pleases you most in others

World is taken by the outside of things

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1750

[LC#04][lc04sxxx.xxx]3354

What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you.

Spare the persons while you lash the crimes.

Pocket all your knowledge with your watch, and never pull it out in company unless desired: the producing of the one unasked, implies that you are weary of the company; and the producing of the other unrequired, will make the company weary of you.

People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority. Conceal all your learning carefully….

A man of the world knows the force of flattery; but then he knows how, when, and where to give it; he proportions his dose to the constitution of the patient. He flatters by application, by inference, by comparison, by hint, and seldom directly.

Absurd romances of the two last centuries

Advocate, the friend, but not the bully of virtue

Assurance and intrepidity

Attention

Author is obscure and difficult in his own language

Characters, that never existed, are insipidly displayed

Commanding with dignity, you must serve up to it with diligence

Complaisance to every or anybody's opinion

Conceal all your learning carefully

Connections

Contempt

Content yourself with mediocrity in nothing

Dance to those who pipe

Decides peremptorily upon every subject

Desire to please, and that is the main point

Desirous to make you their friend

Despairs of ever being able to pay

Difference in everything between system and practice

Dignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well as in business

Distinction between simulation and dissimulation

Do not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the gold of Virgil

Doing what may deserve to be written

Done under concern and embarrassment, must be ill done

Dressed as the generality of people of fashion are

Economist of your time

Establishing a character of integrity and good manners

Feed him, and feed upon him at the same time

Flattery

Fortune stoops to the forward and the bold

Frivolous and superficial pertness

Gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight

Guard against those who make the most court to you

Have no pleasures but your own

If you will persuade, you must first please

Improve yourself with the old, divert yourself with the young

Indiscriminately loading their memories with every part alike

Insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else

Labor more to put them in conceit with themselves

Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote

Let nobody discover that you do know your own value

Let them quietly enjoy their errors in taste

Man is dishonored by not resenting an affront

Manner is full as important as the matter

Method

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise

Money, the cause of much mischief

More people have ears to be tickled, than understandings to judge

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends

Necessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances

Never affect the character in which you have a mind to shine

Never read history without having maps

No one feels pleasure, who does not at the same time give it

Not only pure, but, like Caesar's wife, unsuspected

Often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment

Passes for a wit, though he hath certainly no uncommon share

Patient toleration of certain airs of superiority

People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority

People lose a great deal of time by reading

Pleased with him, by making them first pleased with themselves

Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal

Pocket all your knowledge with your watch

Put out your time, but to good interest

Real merit of any kind will be discovered

Respect without timidity

Rich man never borrows

Same coolness and unconcern in any and every company

Seem to like and approve of everything at first

Sentiments that were never felt, pompously described

She has all the reading that a woman should have

She who conquers only catches a Tartar

Silence in love betrays more woe

Spare the persons while you lash the crimes

Steady assurance, with seeming modesty

Suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgive

Take the hue of the company you are with

Taking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinsic merit

The present moments are the only ones we are sure of

Those whom you can make like themselves better

Timidity and diffidence

To be heard with success, you must be heard with pleasure

To be pleased one must please

Trifle only with triflers; and be serious only with the serious

Trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon

Unwilling and forced; it will never please

Well dressed, not finely dressed

What is impossible, and what is only difficult

What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you

Whatever real merit you have, other people will discover

Wish you, my dear friend, as many happy new years as you deserve

Women choose their favorites more by the ear

Words are the dress of thoughts

Writing what may deserve to be read

You must be respectable, if you will be respected

Your character there, whatever it is, will get before you here

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1751

[LC#05][lc05sxxx.xxx]3355

If you find that you have a hastiness in your temper, which unguardedly breaks out into indiscreet sallies, or rough expressions, to either your superiors, your equals, or your inferiors, watch it narrowly, check it carefully, and call the 'suaviter in modo' to your assistance: at the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft.

He often is unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes so, I dare say, to himself.

"The prostrate lover, when he lowest lies,

But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise."

We are so made, we love to be pleased better than to be informed; information is, in a certain degree, mortifying, as it implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened to be palatable.

Free from the guilt: be free from the suspicion, too. Mankind, as I have often told you, are more governed by appearances than by realities; and with regard to opinion, one had better be really rough and hard, with the appearance of gentleness and softness, than just the reverse.

A favor may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend

Affectation of business

Applauded often, without approving

At the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft

Avoid cacophony, and, what is very near as bad, monotony

Be silent till you can be soft

Being intelligible is now no longer the fashion

Better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily

Business must be well, not affectedly dressed

Business now is to shine, not to weigh

Cease to love when you cease to be agreeable

Chit-chat, useful to keep off improper and too serious subjects

Committing acts of hostility upon the Graces

Concealed what learning I had

Consciousness of merit makes a man of sense more modest

Disagreeable things may be done so agreeably as almost to oblige

Disputes with heat

Easy without negligence

Elegance in one language will reproduce itself in all

Every man knows that he understands religion and politics

Every numerous assembly is MOB

Everybody is good for something

Expresses himself with more fire than elegance

Frank without indiscretion

Full-bottomed wigs were contrived for his humpback

Gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind

German, who has taken into his head that he understands French

Grow wiser when it is too late

Habitual eloquence

Hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind

Have you learned to carve?

If free from the guilt, be free from the suspicion, too

Inclined to be fat, but I hope you will decline it

Indolently say that they cannot do

Information implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened

Information is, in a certain degree, mortifying

Insinuates himself only into the esteem of fools

It is a real inconvenience to anybody to be fat

Know, yourself and others

Knowing how much you have, and how little you want

Last beautiful varnish, which raises the colors

Learn to keep your own secrets

Loved without being despised, and feared without being hated

Man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry

Mangles what he means to carve

Mazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the shackles

Meditation and reflection

Mere reason and good sense is never to be talked to a mob

Mistimes or misplaces everything

Mitigating, engaging words do by no means weaken your argument

MOB: Understanding they have collectively none

Often necessary, not to manifest all one feels

One must often yield, in order to prevail

Only because she will not, and not because she cannot

Our frivolous dissertations upon the weather, or upon whist

Outward air of modesty to all he does

Richelieu came and shackled the nation

Rochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man very exactly

See what you see, and to hear what you hear

Seems to have no opinion of his own

Seldom a misfortune to be childless

She has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a woman

Speaking to himself in the glass

Style is the dress of thoughts

Success turns much more upon manner than matter

Tacitus

Take characters, as they do most things, upon trust

They thought I informed, because I pleased them

Unaffected silence upon that subject is the only true medium

Unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes to himself

Use palliatives when you contradict

We love to be pleased better than to be informed

Woman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased

Women are the only refiners of the merit of men

Yielded commonly without conviction

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1752

[LC#06][lc06sxxx.xxx]3356

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

Enjoy every moment; pleasures do not commonly last so long as life, and therefore should not be neglected; and the longest life is too short for knowledge, consequently every moment is precious.

A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

Laziness of mind, or inattention, are as great enemies to knowledge as incapacity; for, in truth, what difference is there between a man who will not, and a man who cannot be informed? This difference only, that the former is justly to be blamed, the latter to be pitied. And yet how many there are, very capable of receiving knowledge, who from laziness, inattention, and incuriousness, will not so much as ask for it, much less take the least pains to acquire it!

Vicissitudes frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends; you must labor, therefore, to acquire that great and uncommon talent of hating with good-breeding and loving with prudence.

Art of pleasing is the most necessary

Assenting, but without being servile and abject

Assertion instead of argument

Attacked by ridicule, and, punished with contempt

Bold, but with great seeming modesty

Close, without being costive

Command of our temper, and of our countenance

Company is, in truth, a constant state of negotiation

Consider things in the worst light, to show your skill

Darkness visible

Defended by arms, adorned by manners, and improved by laws

Doing nothing, and might just as well be asleep

Endeavor to hear, and know all opinions

Enjoy all those advantages

Few people know how to love, or how to hate

Fools, who can never be undeceived

Frank, but without indiscretion

Frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends

Grave without the affectation of wisdom

Horace

How troublesome an old correspondent must be to a young one

I CANNOT DO SUCH A THING

Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains

Inattention

Infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery

Judges from the appearances of things, and not from the reality

Keep your own temper and artfully warm other people's

King's popularity is a better guard than their army

Made him believe that the world was made for him

Make every man I met with like me, and every woman love me

Man or woman cannot resist an engaging exterior

Man who is only good on holydays is good for very little

Never seek for wit; if it presents itself, well and good

Not making use of any one capital letter

Notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes

Old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not

Please all who are worth pleasing; offend none

Pleasures do not commonly last so long as life

Polite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness

Prejudices are our mistresses

Quarrel with them when they are grown up, for being spoiled

Read with caution and distrust

Ruined their own son by what they called loving him

Secret, without being dark and mysterious

Seeming inattention to the person who is speaking to you

Talent of hating with good-breeding and loving with prudence

The longest life is too short for knowledge

Trifles that concern you are not trifles to me

Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle

Useful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid

Where one would gain people, remember that nothing is little

Wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded

Wit may created any admirers but makes few friends

Young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1753-54

[LC#07][lc07sxxx.xxx]3357

Never to show the least symptom of resentment which you cannot to a certain degree gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.

Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as singular as I please, but you may not.

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

I look upon indolence as a sort of SUICIDE; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive. Business by no means forbids pleasures; on the contrary, they reciprocally season each other; and I will venture to affirm, that no man enjoys either in perfection, that does not join both.

Reasons alleged are seldom the true ones.

It is only the manner of saying or writing it that makes it appear new. Convince yourself that manner is almost everything, in everything; and study it accordingly.

According as their interest prompts them to wish

Acquainted with books, and an absolute stranger to men

Affectation of singularity or superiority

All have senses to be gratified

Business by no means forbids pleasures

Clamorers triumph

Doing anything that will deserve to be written

Ears to hear, but not sense enough to judge

ERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE STAGE

Good manners are the settled medium of social life

Good reasons alleged are seldom the true ones

Holiday eloquence

I know myself (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you)

Indolence

INTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality in civil matters

Kick him upstairs

Many are very willing, and very few able

Perseverance has surprising effects

Pettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too young

Reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does

Singularity is only pardonable in old age

Smile, where you cannot strike

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them

Too like, and too exact a picture of human nature

Vanity, interest, and absurdity, always display

Warm and young thanks, not old and cold ones

Writing anything that may deserve to be read

Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough

Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1756-58

[LC#08][lc08sxxx.xxx]3358

MY DEAR FRIEND: I have so little to do, that I am surprised how I can find time to write to you so often. Do not stare at the seeming paradox; for it is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the bare suspicion of ignorance!

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.

What have I done to-day? Have I done anything that can be of use to myself or others? Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it? Have I lived out the day, or have I dozed it away in sloth and laziness?

Many things which seem extremely probable are not true: and many which seem highly improbable are true.

The more one works, the more willing one is to work. We are all, more or less, 'des animaux d'habitude'.

Am still unwell; I cannot help it!

Apt to make them think themselves more necessary than they are

BUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE THINKS PROPER

Conjectures pass upon us for truths

Enemies as if they may one day become one's friends

Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it?

Home, be it ever so homely

Jog on like man and wife; that is, seldom agreeing

Less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in

Many things which seem extremely probable are not true

More one works, the more willing one is to work

Most ignorant are, as usual, the boldest conjecturers

Nipped in the bud

No great regard for human testimony

Not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears

Person to you whom I am very indifferent about, I mean myself

Petty jury

Something must be said, but that something must be nothing

Sow jealousies among one's enemies

Think to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance

Think yourself less well than you are, in order to be quite so

What have I done to-day?

Will pay very dear for the quarrels and ambition of a few

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1759-65

[LC#09][lc09sxxx.xxx]3359

Whatever one MUST do, one should do 'de bonne grace'.

Appears that you are rather a gainer by your misfortune.

I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know.

In short, let it be your maxim through life to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the informations of others. This rule has been of infinite service to me in the course of my life.

I feel a gradual decay, though a gentle one; and I think that I shall not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life. When that will be, I neither know nor care, for I am very weary.

I find nothing much worth either desiring or fearing. But these reflections, which suit with seventy, would be greatly premature at two- and-thirty. So make the best of your time; enjoy the present hour, but 'memor ultimae'.

In the intercourse of the world, it is often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows, and to have forgotten what one remembers.

Always made the best of the best, and never made bad worse

American Colonies

Be neither transported nor depressed by the accidents of life

Doing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not help doing

EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST

Everything has a better and a worse side

Extremely weary of this silly world

Gainer by your misfortune

I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know

Intrinsic, and not their imaginary value

My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good

National honor and interest have been sacrificed to private

Neither abilities or words enough to call a coach

Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary

Never saw a froward child mended by whipping

Never to trust implicitly to the informations of others

Not make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them

Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life

Nothing much worth either desiring or fearing

Often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows

Only solid and lasting peace, between a man and his wife

Oysters, are only in season in the R months

Patience is the only way not to make bad worse

Recommends self-conversation to all authors

Return you the ball 'a la volee'

Settled here for good, as it is called

Stamp-duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay

Thinks himself much worse than he is

To seem to have forgotten what one remembers

We shall be feared, if we do not show that we fear

Whatever one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace'

Who takes warning by the fate of others?

Women are all so far Machiavelians

LETTERS TO HIS SON, 1766-71

[LC#10][lc10sxxx.xxx]3360

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.

Get what I can, if I cannot get what I will.

There must have been some very grave and important reasons for so extraordinary a measure: but what they were I do not pretend to guess; and perhaps I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do.

I am neither well nor ill, but UNWELL.

Those who wish him the best, as I do, must wish him dead.

I would have all intoleration intolerated in its turn.

Anxiety for my health and life

Borough-jobber

I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do.

Read my eyes out every day, that I may not hang myself

Stamp-act has proved a most pernicious measure

Water-drinkers can write nothing good

Would not tell what she did not know

THE ENTIRE PG EDITION OF CHESTERFIELD

[LC#11][lcewkxxx.xxx]3261

A little learning is a dangerous thing

A joker is near akin to a buffoon

A favor may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend

Ablest man will sometimes do weak things

Above all things, avoid speaking of yourself

Above the frivolous as below the important and the secret

Above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them

Absolute command of your temper

Abstain from learned ostentation

Absurd term of genteel and fashionable vices

Absurd romances of the two last centuries

According as their interest prompts them to wish

Acquainted with books, and an absolute stranger to men

Advice is seldom welcome

Advise those who do not speak elegantly, not to speak

Advocate, the friend, but not the bully of virtue

Affectation of singularity or superiority

Affectation in dress

Affectation of business

All have senses to be gratified

Always made the best of the best, and never made bad worse

Always does more than he says

Always some favorite word for the time being

Always look people in the face when you speak to them

Am still unwell; I cannot help it!

American Colonies

Ancients and Moderns

Anxiety for my health and life

Applauded often, without approving

Apt to make them think themselves more necessary than they are

Argumentative, polemical conversations

Arrogant pedant

Art of pleasing is the most necessary

As willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody

Ascribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes

Assenting, but without being servile and abject

Assertion instead of argument

Assign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions

Assurance and intrepidity

At the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft

Attacked by ridicule, and, punished with contempt

Attend to the objects of your expenses, but not to the sums

Attention to the inside of books

Attention and civility please all

Attention

Author is obscure and difficult in his own language

Authority

Avoid cacophony, and, what is very near as bad, monotony

Avoid singularity

Awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions

Be neither transported nor depressed by the accidents of life

Be silent till you can be soft

Being in the power of every man to hurt him

Being intelligible is now no longer the fashion

Better not to seem to understand, than to reply

Better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily

Blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied

Bold, but with great seeming modesty

Borough_jobber

Business must be well, not affectedly dressed

Business now is to shine, not to weigh

Business by no means forbids pleasures

BUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE THINKS PROPER

Can hardly be said to see what they see

Cannot understand them, or will not desire to understand them

Cardinal Mazarin

Cardinal Richelieu

Cardinal de Retz

Cardinal Virtues, by first degrading them into weaknesses

Cautious how we draw inferences

Cease to love when you cease to be agreeable

Chameleon, be able to take every different hue

Characters, that never existed, are insipidly displayed

Cheerful in the countenance, but without laughing

Chit_chat, useful to keep off improper and too serious subjects

Choose your pleasures for yourself

Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others

Clamorers triumph

Close, without being costive

Command of our temper, and of our countenance

Commanding with dignity, you must serve up to it with diligence

Committing acts of hostility upon the Graces

Common sense (which, in truth, very uncommon)

Commonplace observations

Company is, in truth, a constant state of negotiation

Complaisance

Complaisance to every or anybody's opinion

Complaisance due to the custom of the place

Complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses

Conceal all your learning carefully

Concealed what learning I had

Conjectures pass upon us for truths

Conjectures supply the defect of unattainable knowledge

Connections

Connive at knaves, and tolerate fools

Consciousness of merit makes a man of sense more modest

Consciousness and an honest pride of doing well

Consider things in the worst light, to show your skill

Contempt

Contempt

Contempt

Content yourself with mediocrity in nothing

Conversation_stock being a joint and common property

Conversation will help you almost as much as books

Converse with his inferiors without insolence

Dance to those who pipe

Darkness visible

Decides peremptorily upon every subject

Deep learning is generally tainted with pedantry

Deepest learning, without good_breeding, is unwelcome

Defended by arms, adorned by manners, and improved by laws

Deserve a little, and you shall have but a little

Desire to please, and that is the main point

Desirous of praise from the praiseworthy

Desirous to make you their friend

Desirous of pleasing

Despairs of ever being able to pay

Dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie

Dictate to them while you seem to be directed by them

Difference in everything between system and practice

Difficulties seem to them, impossibilities

Dignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well as in business

Disagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so

Disagreeable things may be done so agreeably as almost to oblige

Disputes with heat

Dissimulation is only to hide our own cards

Distinction between simulation and dissimulation

Distinguish between the useful and the curious

Do as you would be done by

Do not become a virtuoso of small wares

Do what you are about

Do what you will but do something all day long

Do as you would be done by

Do not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the gold of Virgil

Does not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you

Doing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not help doing

Doing what may deserve to be written

Doing nothing, and might just as well be asleep

Doing anything that will deserve to be written

Done under concern and embarrassment, must be ill done

Dress like the reasonable people of your own age

Dress well, and not too well

Dressed as the generality of people of fashion are

Ears to hear, but not sense enough to judge

Easy without negligence

Easy without too much familiarity

Economist of your time

Either do not think, or do not love to think

Elegance in one language will reproduce itself in all

Employ your whole time, which few people do

Endeavor to hear, and know all opinions

Endeavors to please and oblige our fellow_creatures

Enemies as if they may one day become one's friends

Enjoy all those advantages

Equally forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy

ERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE STAGE

Establishing a character of integrity and good manners

Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful

Every numerous assembly is MOB

Every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness

Every man knows that he understands religion and politics

Every numerous assembly is a mob

Every man pretends to common sense

EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST

Everybody is good for something

Everything has a better and a worse side

Exalt the gentle in woman and man__above the merely genteel

Expresses himself with more fire than elegance

Extremely weary of this silly world

Eyes and the ears are the only roads to the heart

Eyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut

Feed him, and feed upon him at the same time

Few things which people in general know less, than how to love

Few people know how to love, or how to hate

Few dare dissent from an established opinion

Fiddle_faddle stories, that carry no information along with them

Fit to live__or not live at all

Flattering people behind their backs

Flattery of women

Flattery

Flexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world

Fools, who can never be undeceived

Fools never perceive where they are ill_timed

Forge accusations against themselves

Forgive, but not approve, the bad.

Fortune stoops to the forward and the bold

Frank without indiscretion

Frank, but without indiscretion

Frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior

Frequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends

Friendship upon very slight acquaintance

Frivolous, idle people, whose time hangs upon their own hands

Frivolous curiosity about trifles

Frivolous and superficial pertness

Full_bottomed wigs were contrived for his humpback

Gain the heart, or you gain nothing

Gain the affections as well as the esteem

Gainer by your misfortune

General conclusions from certain particular principles

Generosity often runs into profusion

Genteel without affectation

Gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight

Gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind

Geography and history are very imperfect separately

German, who has taken into his head that he understands French

Go to the bottom of things

Good manners

Good reasons alleged are seldom the true ones

Good manners are the settled medium of social life

Good company

Good_breeding

Graces: Without us, all labor is vain

Gratitude not being universal, nor even common

Grave without the affectation of wisdom

Great learning; which, if not accompanied with sound judgment

Great numbers of people met together, animate each other

Greatest fools are the greatest liars

Grow wiser when it is too late

Guard against those who make the most court to you

Habit and prejudice

Habitual eloquence

Half done or half known

Hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind

Hardly any body good for every thing

Haste and hurry are very different things

Have no pleasures but your own

Have a will and an opinion of your own, and adhere to it

Have I employed my time, or have I squandered it?

Have but one set of jokes to live upon

Have you learned to carve?

He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds

He will find it out of himself without your endeavors

Heart has such an influence over the understanding

Helps only, not as guides

Herd of mankind can hardly be said to think

Historians

Holiday eloquence

Home, be it ever so homely

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed

Honestest man loves himself best

Horace

How troublesome an old correspondent must be to a young one

How much you have to do; and how little time to do it in

Human nature is always the same

Hurt those they love by a mistaken indulgence

I hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear alternately

I shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do.

I shall always love you as you shall deserve.

I know myself (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you)

I CANNOT DO SUCH A THING

I, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds

If free from the guilt, be free from the suspicion, too

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself

If I don't mind his orders he won't mind my draughts

If you will persuade, you must first please

If once we quarrel, I will never forgive

Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains

Impertinent insult upon custom and fashion

Improve yourself with the old, divert yourself with the young

Inaction at your age is unpardonable

Inattention

Inattentive, absent; and distrait

Inclined to be fat, but I hope you will decline it

Incontinency of friendship among young fellows

Indiscriminate familiarity

Indiscriminately loading their memories with every part alike

Indolence

Indolently say that they cannot do

Infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery

Information is, in a certain degree, mortifying

Information implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened

Injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult

Inquisition

Insinuates himself only into the esteem of fools

Insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else

Insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself

Insolent civility

INTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality in civil matters

Intrinsic, and not their imaginary value

It is a real inconvenience to anybody to be fat

It is not sufficient to deserve well; one must please well too

Jealous of being slighted

Jog on like man and wife; that is, seldom agreeing

Judge of every man's truth by his degree of understanding

Judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages

Judges from the appearances of things, and not from the reality

Keep your own temper and artfully warm other people's

Keep good company, and company above yourself

Kick him upstairs

King's popularity is a better guard than their army

Know their real value, and how much they are generally overrated

Know the true value of time

Know, yourself and others

Knowing how much you have, and how little you want

Knowing any language imperfectly

Knowledge is like power in this respect

Knowledge: either despise it, or think that they have enough

Knowledge of a scholar with the manners of a courtier

Known people pretend to vices they had not

Knows what things are little, and what not

Labor is the unavoidable fatigue of a necessary journey

Labor more to put them in conceit with themselves

Last beautiful varnish, which raises the colors

Laughing, I must particularly warn you against it

Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably

Lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind

Learn to keep your own secrets

Learn, if you can, the WHY and the WHEREFORE

Leave the company, at least as soon as he is wished out of it

Led, much oftener by little things than by great ones

Less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in

Let me see more of you in your letters

Let them quietly enjoy their errors in taste

Let nobody discover that you do know your own value

Let nothing pass till you understand it

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote

Life of ignorance is not only a very contemptible, but tiresome

Listlessness and indolence are always blameable

Little minds mistake little objects for great ones

Little failings and weaknesses

Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob

Love with him, who they think is the most in love with them

Loved without being despised, and feared without being hated

Low company, most falsely and impudently, call pleasure

Low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite laughter

Luther's disappointed avarice

Machiavel

Made him believe that the world was made for him

Make a great difference between companions and friends

Make himself whatever he pleases, except a good poet

Make yourself necessary

Make every man I met with like me, and every woman love me

Man is dishonored by not resenting an affront

Man or woman cannot resist an engaging exterior

Man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry

Man who is only good on holydays is good for very little

Mangles what he means to carve

Manner is full as important as the matter

Manner of doing things is often more important

Manners must adorn knowledge

Many things which seem extremely probable are not true

Many are very willing, and very few able

Mastery of one's temper

May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer!

May you rather die before you cease to be fit to live

May not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned

Mazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the shackles

Meditation and reflection

Mere reason and good sense is never to be talked to a mob

Merit and good_breeding will make their way everywhere

Method

Mistimes or misplaces everything

Mitigating, engaging words do by no means weaken your argument

MOB: Understanding they have collectively none

Moderation with your enemies

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise

Money, the cause of much mischief

More people have ears to be tickled, than understandings to judge

More one sees, the less one either wonders or admires

More you know, the modester you should be

More one works, the more willing one is to work

Mortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank, fortune

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends

Most long talkers single out some one unfortunate man in company

Most ignorant are, as usual, the boldest conjecturers

Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears

Much sooner forgive an injustice than an insult

My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good

Mystical nonsense

Name that we leave behind at one place often gets before us

National honor and interest have been sacrificed to private

Necessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances

Neglect them in little things, they will leave you in great

Negligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing

Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary

Neither abilities or words enough to call a coach

Neither retail nor receive scandal willingly

Never would know anything that he had not a mind to know

Never read history without having maps

Never affect the character in which you have a mind to shine

Never implicitly adopt a character upon common fame

Never seek for wit; if it presents itself, well and good

Never to speak of yourself at all

Never slattern away one minute in idleness

Never quit a subject till you are thoroughly master of it

Never maintain an argument with heat and clamor

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with

Never saw a froward child mended by whipping

Never to trust implicitly to the informations of others

Nipped in the bud

No great regard for human testimony

No man is distrait with the man he fears, or the woman he loves

No one feels pleasure, who does not at the same time give it

Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life

Not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears

Not only pure, but, like Caesar's wife, unsuspected

Not make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them

Not making use of any one capital letter

Not to admire anything too much

Not one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all

Notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes

Nothing in courts is exactly as it appears to be

Nothing much worth either desiring or fearing

Nothing so precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost

Observe, without being thought an observer

Often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment

Often necessary, not to manifest all one feels

Often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows

Oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings

Old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not

One must often yield, in order to prevail

Only doing one thing at a time

Only because she will not, and not because she cannot

Only solid and lasting peace, between a man and his wife

Our understandings are generally the DUPES of our hearts

Our frivolous dissertations upon the weather, or upon whist

Out of livery; which makes them both impertinent and useless

Outward air of modesty to all he does

Overvalue what we do not know

Oysters, are only in season in the R months

Passes for a wit, though he hath certainly no uncommon share

Patience is the only way not to make bad worse

Patient toleration of certain airs of superiority

Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company

Pay them with compliments, but not with confidence

People never desire all till they have gotten a great deal

People lose a great deal of time by reading

People will repay, and with interest too, inattention

People angling for praise

People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority

Perfection of everything that is worth doing at all

Perseverance has surprising effects

Person to you whom I am very indifferent about, I mean myself

Pettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too young

Petty jury

Plain notions of right and wrong

Planted while young, that degree of knowledge now my refuge

Please all who are worth pleasing; offend none

Pleased to some degree by showing a desire to please

Pleased with him, by making them first pleased with themselves

Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in yourself

Pleasure and business with equal inattention

Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal

Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon

Pleasures do not commonly last so long as life

Pocket all your knowledge with your watch

Polite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness

POLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE

Prefer useful to frivolous conversations

Prejudices are our mistresses

Pride remembers it forever

Pride of being the first of the company

Prudent reserve

Public speaking

Put out your time, but to good interest

Quarrel with them when they are grown up, for being spoiled

Quietly cherished error, instead of seeking for truth

Read my eyes out every day, that I may not hang myself

Read with caution and distrust

Real merit of any kind will be discovered

Real friendship is a slow grower

Reason ought to direct the whole, but seldom does

Reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does

Receive them with great civility, but with great incredulity

Reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form

Recommend (pleasure) to you, like an Epicurean

Recommends self_conversation to all authors

Refuge of people who have neither wit nor invention of their own

Refuse more gracefully than other people could grant

Repeating

Represent, but do not pronounce

Reserve with your friends

Respect without timidity

Respectful without meanness, easy without too much familiarity

Return you the ball 'a la volee'

Rich man never borrows

Richelieu came and shackled the nation

Rochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man very exactly

Rochefoucault

Rough corners which mere nature has given to the smoothest

Ruined their own son by what they called loving him

Same coolness and unconcern in any and every company

Scandal: receiver is always thought, as bad as the thief

Scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow

Scarcely any body who is absolutely good for nothing

Scrupled no means to obtain his ends

Secret, without being dark and mysterious

Secrets

See what you see, and to hear what you hear

Seem to like and approve of everything at first

Seeming frankness with a real reserve

Seeming inattention to the person who is speaking to you

Seeming openness is prudent

Seems to have no opinion of his own

Seldom a misfortune to be childless

Self_love draws a thick veil between us and our faults

Sentiment_mongers

Sentiments that were never felt, pompously described

Serious without being dull

Settled here for good, as it is called

Shakespeare

She has all the reading that a woman should have

She who conquers only catches a Tartar

She has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a woman

Shepherds and ministers are both men

Silence in love betrays more woe

Singularity is only pardonable in old age

Six, or at most seven hours sleep

Smile, where you cannot strike

Some complaisance and attention to fools is prudent

Some men pass their whole time in doing nothing

Something or other is to be got out of everybody

Something must be said, but that something must be nothing

Sooner forgive an injury than an insult

Sow jealousies among one's enemies

Spare the persons while you lash the crimes

Speaking to himself in the glass

Stamp_act has proved a most pernicious measure

Stamp_duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay

State your difficulties, whenever you have any

Steady assurance, with seeming modesty

Studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world

Style is the dress of thoughts

Success turns much more upon manner than matter

Sure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to

Suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgive

Swearing

Tacitus

Take the hue of the company you are with

Take characters, as they do most things, upon trust

Take, rather than give, the tone of the company you are in

Take nothing for granted, upon the bare authority of the author

Taking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinsic merit

Talent of hating with good_breeding and loving with prudence

Talk often, but never long

Talk sillily upon a subject of other people's

Talk of natural affection is talking nonsense

Talking of either your own or other people's domestic affairs

Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are

Tell stories very seldom

The longest life is too short for knowledge

The present moments are the only ones we are sure of

The best have something bad, and something little

The worst have something good, and sometimes something great

There are many avenues to every man

They thought I informed, because I pleased them

Thin veil of Modesty drawn before Vanity

Think to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance

Think yourself less well than you are, in order to be quite so

Thinks himself much worse than he is

Thoroughly, not superficially

Those who remarkably affect any one virtue

Those whom you can make like themselves better

Three passions that often put honesty to most severe trials

Timidity and diffidence

To be heard with success, you must be heard with pleasure

To be pleased one must please

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them

To seem to have forgotten what one remembers

To know people's real sentiments, I trust much more to my eyes

To great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness

Too like, and too exact a picture of human nature

Trifle only with triflers; and be serious only with the serious

Trifles that concern you are not trifles to me

Trifling parts, with their little jargon

Trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon

Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle

Truth leaves no room for compliments

Unaffected silence upon that subject is the only true medium

Unguarded frankness

Unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes to himself

Unopened, because one title in twenty has been omitted

Unwilling and forced; it will never please

Use palliatives when you contradict

Useful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid

Value of moments, when cast up, is immense

Vanity, interest, and absurdity, always display

Vanity, that source of many of our follies

Warm and young thanks, not old and cold ones

Water_drinkers can write nothing good

We love to be pleased better than to be informed

We have many of those useful prejudices in this country

We shall be feared, if we do not show that we fear

Well dressed, not finely dressed

What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you

What displeases or pleases you in others

What you feel pleases you in them

What have I done to_day?

What is impossible, and what is only difficult

Whatever pleases you most in others

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well

Whatever one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace'

Whatever real merit you have, other people will discover

When well dressed for the day think no more of it afterward

Where one would gain people, remember that nothing is little

Who takes warning by the fate of others?

Wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded

Will not so much as hint at our follies

Will pay very dear for the quarrels and ambition of a few

Wish you, my dear friend, as many happy new years as you deserve

Wit may created any admirers but makes few friends

Witty without satire or commonplace

Woman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased

Women are the only refiners of the merit of men

Women choose their favorites more by the ear

Women are all so far Machiavelians

Words are the dress of thoughts

World is taken by the outside of things

Would not tell what she did not know

Wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations

Writing anything that may deserve to be read

Writing what may deserve to be read

Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is

Yielded commonly without conviction

You must be respectable, if you will be respected

You had much better hold your tongue than them

Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things

Young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be

Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough

Your merit and your manners can alone raise you

Your character there, whatever it is, will get before you here

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Table of Contents

WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS

CONTENTS:

EDITOR'S NOTE

WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS

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