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There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest: but there is seldom one in which a man should tell it all.

Lord Chesterfield

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Lord Chesterfield
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Sincerity is the most compendious wisdom.
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In order to judge of the inside of others, study your own for men in general are very much alike and though one has one prevailing passion, and another has another, yet their operations are much the same and whatever engages or disgusts, pleases or offends you, in others, will, mutatis mutandis, engage, disgust, please, or offend others, in you.
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We are as often duped by diffidence as by confidence.
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If you will please people, you must please them in their own way.
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You must look into people, as well as at them.
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Conscious virtue is the only solid foundation of all happiness for riches, power, rank, or whatever, in the common acceptation ofthe word, is supposed to constitute happiness, will never quiet, much less cure, the inward pangs of guilt.
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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.
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Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.
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A man who cannot command his temper, his attention, and his countenance should not think of being a man of business.
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Dancing is, in itself, a very trifling and silly thing: but it is one of those established follies to which people of sense are sometimes obliged to conform and then they should be able to do it well. And though I would not have you a dancer, yet, when you do dance, I would have you dance well, as I would have you do everything you do well.
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Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life returns are equally expected for both.
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Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.
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People hate who makes you feel one's inferiority.
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If you will please people, you must please them in their own way and as you cannot make them what they should be, you must take them as they are.
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Compliments of congratulation are always kindly taken, and cost nothing but pen, ink and paper. I consider them as draughts upon good breeding, where the exchange is always greatly in favor of the drawer.
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The greatest dangers have their allurements, if the want of success is likely to be attended with a degree of glory. Middling dangers are horrid, when the loss of reputation is the inevitable consequence of ill success.
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Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.
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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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Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.
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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 base suspicion of ignorance.
Lord Chesterfield