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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
Men
Seldom
Occasions
Rest
Secret
Half
Tell
Order
Must
Conceal

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Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.
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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.
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A man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry.
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It is hard to say which is the greatest fool: he who tells the whole truth, or he who tells no truth at all. Character is as necessary in business as in trade. No man can deceive often in either.
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If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.
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Not to care for philosophy is to be a true philospher.
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Arbitrary power has seldom... been introduced in any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step.
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Statesmen and beauties are very rarely sensible of the gradations of their decay.
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In your friendships and in your enmities let your confidence and your hostilities have certain bounds make not the former dangerous, nor the latter irreconcilable. There are strange vicissitudes in business.
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Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word.
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Wise people may say what they will, but one passion is never cured by another.
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In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.
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You must look into people, as well as at them.
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The manner of a vulgar man has freedom without ease, and the manner of a gentleman has ease without freedom.
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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.
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The permanency of most friendships depends upon the continuity of good fortune.
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An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
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Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.
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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.
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If you love music hear it go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light brings him into a great deal of bad company and takes up a great deal of time, which might be much better employed.
Lord Chesterfield