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

Lord Chesterfield

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Lord Chesterfield
Humility
Praise
Sure
Bait
Angle
Modesty

More quotes by Lord Chesterfield

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The heart never grows better by age I fear rather worse always harder.
Lord Chesterfield
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Mind not only what people say, but how they say it and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth by your eyes than by your ears. People can say what they will, but they cannot look just as they will and their looks frequently (reveal) what their words are calculated to conceal.
Lord Chesterfield
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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.
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Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compassto direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel for want of which, pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage.
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I really think next to the consciousness of doing a good action, that of doing a civil one is the most pleasing and the epithet which I should covet the most next to that of Aristides, would be that of well-bred.
Lord Chesterfield
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Remember that whatever knowledge you do not solidly lay the foundation of before you are eighteen, you will never be master of while you breathe.
Lord Chesterfield
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You must be respectable, if you will be respected.
Lord Chesterfield
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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
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The heart has such an influence over the understanding, that it is worth while to engage it in our interest.
Lord Chesterfield
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Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.
Lord Chesterfield
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Little secrets are commonly told again, but great ones generally kept.
Lord Chesterfield
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Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.
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Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.
Lord Chesterfield
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When one is at play, one should not think of one's learning.
Lord Chesterfield
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Health ... is the first and greatest of all blessings.
Lord Chesterfield
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Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.
Lord Chesterfield
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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
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An honest man may really love a pretty girl, but only an idiot marries her merely because she is pretty.
Lord Chesterfield
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Be wiser than other people if you can but do not tell them so.
Lord Chesterfield
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A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.
Lord Chesterfield