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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

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Lord Chesterfield
Pride
Conjectures
Knowledge
Mortifying
Upon
Conjecture
Often
Suspicion
Cannot
Base
Truths
Pass
Ignorance

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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.
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Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way for merit, that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties...
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Prepare yourself for the world, as athletes used to do for their exercises oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility strength alone will not do.
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You must be respectable, if you will be respected.
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If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.
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If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.
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Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and ineffective.
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Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep company with people above you.... Do not mistake, when I say company above you, and think that I mean with regard to their birth that is the least consideration but I mean with regard to their merit, and the light in which the world considers them.
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Sincerity is the most compendious wisdom.
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Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.
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Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.
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Pocket all your knowledge with your watch, and never pull it out in company unless desired.
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I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide.
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