{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7539/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7539","id":"gutenberg_7539","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7539","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Quotations"],"text":"QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM CHESTERFIELD'S\n\nLETTERS TO HIS SON, 1766-1771\n\nby The Earl of Chesterfield\n\n\n\nQUOTATIONS\n\nA little learning is a dangerous thing\nA joker is near akin to a buffoon\nA favor may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend\nAblest man will sometimes do weak things\nAbove all things, avoid speaking of yourself\nAbove the frivolous as below the important and the secret\nAbove trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them\nAbsolute command of your temper\nAbstain from learned ostentation\nAbsurd term of genteel and fashionable vices\nAbsurd romances of the two last centuries\nAccording as their interest prompts them to wish\nAcquainted with books, and an absolute stranger to men\nAdvice is seldom welcome\nAdvise those who do not speak elegantly, not to speak\nAdvocate, the friend, but not the bully of virtue\nAffectation of singularity or superiority\nAffectation in dress\nAffectation of business\nAll have senses to be gratified\nAlways made the best of the best, and never made bad worse\nAlways does more than he says\nAlways some favorite word for the time being\nAlways look people in the face when you speak to them\nAm still unwell; I cannot help it!\nAmerican Colonies\nAncients and Moderns\nAnxiety for my health and life\nApplauded often, without approving\nApt to make them think themselves more necessary than they are\nArgumentative, polemical conversations\nArrogant pedant\nArt of pleasing is the most necessary\nAs willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody\nAscribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes\nAssenting, but without being servile and abject\nAssertion instead of argument\nAssign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions\nAssurance and intrepidity\nAt the first impulse of passion, be silent till you can be soft\nAttacked by ridicule, and, punished with contempt\nAttend to the objects of your expenses, but not to the sums\nAttention to the inside of books\nAttention and civility please all\nAttention\nAuthor is obscure and difficult in his own language\nAuthority\nAvoid cacophony, and, what is very near as bad, monotony\nAvoid singularity\nAwkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions\nBe neither transported nor depressed by the accidents of life\nBe silent till you can be soft\nBeing in the power of every man to hurt him\nBeing intelligible is now no longer the fashion\nBetter not to seem to understand, than to reply\nBetter refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily\nBlindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied\nBold, but with great seeming modesty\nBorough-jobber\nBusiness must be well, not affectedly dressed\nBusiness now is to shine, not to weigh\nBusiness by no means forbids pleasures\nBUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE THINKS PROPER\nCan hardly be said to see what they see\nCannot understand them, or will not desire to understand them\nCardinal Mazarin\nCardinal Richelieu\nCardinal de Retz\nCardinal Virtues, by first degrading them into weaknesses\nCautious how we draw inferences\nCease to love when you cease to be agreeable\nChameleon, be able to take every different hue\nCharacters, that never existed, are insipidly displayed\nCheerful in the countenance, but without laughing\nChit-chat, useful to keep off improper and too serious subjects\nChoose your pleasures for yourself\nCivility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others\nClamorers triumph\nClose, without being costive\nCommand of our temper, and of our countenance\nCommanding with dignity, you must serve up to it with diligence\nCommitting acts of hostility upon the Graces\nCommon sense (which, in truth, very uncommon)\nCommonplace observations\nCompany is, in truth, a constant state of negotiation\nComplaisance\nComplaisance to every or anybody's opinion\nComplaisance due to the custom of the place\nComplaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses\nConceal all your learning carefully\nConcealed what learning I had\nConjectures pass upon us for truths\nConjectures supply the defect of unattainable knowledge\nConnections\nConnive at knaves, and tolerate fools\nConsciousness of merit makes a man of sense more modest\nConsciousness and an honest pride of doing well\nConsider things in the worst light, to show your skill\nContent yourself with mediocrity in nothing\nConversation-stock being a joint and common property\nConversation will help you almost as much as books\nConverse with his inferiors without insolence\nDance to those who pipe\nDarkness visible\nDecides peremptorily upon every subject\nDeep learning is generally tainted with pedantry\nDeepest learning, without good-breeding, is unwelcome\nDefended by arms, adorned by manners, and improved by laws\nDeserve a little, and you shall have but a little\nDesire to please, and that is the main point\nDesirous of praise from the praiseworthy\nDesirous to make you their friend\nDesirous of pleasing\nDespairs of ever being able to pay\nDexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie\nDictate to them while you seem to be directed by them\nDifference in everything between system and practice\nDifficulties seem to them, impossibilities\nDignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well as in business\nDisagreeable to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so\nDisagreeable things may be done so agreeably as almost to oblige\nDisputes with heat\nDissimulation is only to hide our own cards\nDistinction between simulation and dissimulation\nDistinguish between the useful and the curious\nDo as you would be done by\nDo not become a virtuoso of small wares\nDo what you are about\nDo what you will but do something all day long\nDo as you would be done by\nDo not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the gold of Virgil\nDoes not give it you, but he inflicts it upon you\nDoing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not help doing\nDoing what may deserve to be written\nDoing nothing, and might just as well be asleep\nDoing anything that will deserve to be written\nDone under concern and embarrassment, must be ill done\nDress like the reasonable people of your own age\nDress well, and not too well\nDressed as the generality of people of fashion are\nEars to hear, but not sense enough to judge\nEasy without negligence\nEasy without too much familiarity\nEconomist of your time\nEither do not think, or do not love to think\nElegance in one language will reproduce itself in all\nEmploy your whole time, which few people do\nEndeavor to hear, and know all opinions\nEndeavors to please and oblige our fellow-creatures\nEnemies as if they may one day become one's friends\nEnjoy all those advantages\nEqually forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy\nERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE STAGE\nEstablishing a character of integrity and good manners\nEven where you are sure, seem rather doubtful\nEvery numerous assembly is MOB\nEvery virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness\nEvery man knows that he understands religion and politics\nEvery numerous assembly is a mob\nEvery man pretends to common sense\nEVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST\nEverybody is good for something\nEverything has a better and a worse side\nExalt the gentle in woman and man--above the merely genteel\nExpresses himself with more fire than elegance\nExtremely weary of this silly world\nEyes and the ears are the only roads to the heart\nEyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut\nFeed him, and feed upon him at the same time\nFew things which people in general know less, than how to love\nFew people know how to love, or how to hate\nFew dare dissent from an established opinion\nFiddle-faddle stories, that carry no information along with them\nFit to live--or not live at all\nFlattering people behind their backs\nFlattery of women\nFlattery\nFlexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world\nFools, who can never be undeceived\nFools never perceive where they are ill-timed\nForge accusations against themselves\nForgive, but not approve, the bad.\nFortune stoops to the forward and the bold\nFrank without indiscretion\nFrank, but without indiscretion\nFrank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior\nFrequently make friends of enemies, and enemies of friends\nFriendship upon very slight acquaintance\nFrivolous, idle people, whose time hangs upon their own hands\nFrivolous curiosity about trifles\nFrivolous and superficial pertness\nFull-bottomed wigs were contrived for his humpback\nGain the heart, or you gain nothing\nGain the affections as well as the esteem\nGainer by your misfortune\nGeneral conclusions from certain particular principles\nGenerosity often runs into profusion\nGenteel without affectation\nGentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight\nGentleness of manners, with firmness of mind\nGeography and history are very imperfect separately\nGerman, who has taken into his head that he understands French\nGo to the bottom of things\nGood manners\nGood reasons alleged are seldom the true ones\nGood manners are the settled medium of social life\nGood company\nGood-breeding\nGraces: Without us, all labor is vain\nGratitude not being universal, nor even common\nGrave without the affectation of wisdom\nGreat learning; which, if not accompanied with sound judgment\nGreat numbers of people met together, animate each other\nGreatest fools are the greatest liars\nGrow wiser when it is too late\nGuard against those who make the most court to you\nHabit and prejudice\nHabitual eloquence\nHalf done or half known\nHardened to the wants and distresses of mankind\nHardly any body good for every thing\nHaste and hurry are very different things\nHave no pleasures but your own\nHave a will and an opinion of your own, and adhere to it\nHave I employed my time, or have I squandered it?\nHave but one set of jokes to live upon\nHave you learned to carve?\nHe that is gentil doeth gentil deeds\nHe will find it out of himself without your endeavors\nHeart has such an influence over the understanding\nHelps only, not as guides\nHerd of mankind can hardly be said to think\nHistorians\nHoliday eloquence\nHome, be it ever so homely\nHonest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed\nHonestest man loves himself best\nHorace\nHow troublesome an old correspondent must be to a young one\nHow much you have to do; and how little time to do it in\nHuman nature is always the same\nHurt those they love by a mistaken indulgence\nI hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear alternately\nI shall never know, though all the coffeehouses here do.\nI shall always love you as you shall deserve.\nI know myself (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you)\nI CANNOT DO SUCH A THING\nI, who am not apt to know anything that I do not know\nIdleness is only the refuge of weak minds\nIf free from the guilt, be free from the suspicion, too\nIf you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself\nIf I don't mind his orders he won't mind my draughts\nIf you will persuade, you must first please\nIf once we quarrel, I will never forgive\nIgnorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains\nImpertinent insult upon custom and fashion\nImprove yourself with the old, divert yourself with the young\nInaction at your age is unpardonable\nInattention\nInattentive, absent; and distrait\nInclined to be fat, but I hope you will decline it\nIncontinency of friendship among young fellows\nIndiscriminate familiarity\nIndiscriminately loading their memories with every part alike\nIndolence\nIndolently say that they cannot do\nInfallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery\nInformation is, in a certain degree, mortifying\nInformation implies our previous ignorance; it must be sweetened\nInjury is much sooner forgotten than an insult\nInquisition\nInsinuates himself only into the esteem of fools\nInsipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else\nInsist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself\nInsolent civility\nINTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality in civil matters\nIntrinsic, and not their imaginary value\nIt is a real inconvenience to anybody to be fat\nIt is not sufficient to deserve well; one must please well too\nJealous of being slighted\nJog on like man and wife; that is, seldom agreeing\nJudge of every man's truth by his degree of understanding\nJudge them all by their merits, but not by their ages\nJudges from the appearances of things, and not from the reality\nKeep your own temper and artfully warm other people's\nKeep good company, and company above yourself\nKick him upstairs\nKing's popularity is a better guard than their army\nKnow their real value, and how much they are generally overrated\nKnow the true value of time\nKnow, yourself and others\nKnowing how much you have, and how little you want\nKnowing any language imperfectly\nKnowledge is like power in this respect\nKnowledge: either despise it, or think that they have enough\nKnowledge of a scholar with the manners of a courtier\nKnown people pretend to vices they had not\nKnows what things are little, and what not\nLabor is the unavoidable fatigue of a necessary journey\nLabor more to put them in conceit with themselves\nLast beautiful varnish, which raises the colors\nLaughing, I must particularly warn you against it\nLay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably\nLazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind\nLearn to keep your own secrets\nLearn, if you can, the WHY and the WHEREFORE\nLeave the company, at least as soon as he is wished out of it\nLed, much oftener by little things than by great ones\nLess one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in\nLet me see more of you in your letters\nLet them quietly enjoy their errors in taste\nLet nobody discover that you do know your own value\nLet nothing pass till you understand it\nLet blockheads read what blockheads wrote\nLife of ignorance is not only a very contemptible, but tiresome\nListlessness and indolence are always blameable\nLittle minds mistake little objects for great ones\nLittle failings and weaknesses\nLoud laughter is the mirth of the mob\nLove with him, who they think is the most in love with them\nLoved without being despised, and feared without being hated\nLow company, most falsely and impudently, call pleasure\nLow buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite laughter\nLuther's disappointed avarice\nMachiavel\nMade him believe that the world was made for him\nMake a great difference between companions and friends\nMake himself whatever he pleases, except a good poet\nMake yourself necessary\nMake every man I met with like me, and every woman love me\nMan is dishonored by not resenting an affront\nMan or woman cannot resist an engaging exterior\nMan of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry\nMan who is only good on holydays is good for very little\nMangles what he means to carve\nManner is full as important as the matter\nManner of doing things is often more important\nManners must adorn knowledge\nMany things which seem extremely probable are not true\nMany are very willing, and very few able\nMastery of one's temper\nMay you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer!\nMay you rather die before you cease to be fit to live\nMay not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned\nMazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the shackles\nMeditation and reflection\nMere reason and good sense is never to be talked to a mob\nMerit and good-breeding will make their way everywhere\nMethod\nMistimes or misplaces everything\nMitigating, engaging words do by no means weaken your argument\nMOB: Understanding they have collectively none\nModeration with your enemies\nModesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise\nMoney, the cause of much mischief\nMore people have ears to be tickled, than understandings to judge\nMore one sees, the less one either wonders or admires\nMore you know, the modester you should be\nMore one works, the more willing one is to work\nMortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank, fortune\nMost people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends\nMost long talkers single out some one unfortunate man in company\nMost ignorant are, as usual, the boldest conjecturers\nMost people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears\nMuch sooner forgive an injustice than an insult\nMy own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good\nMystical nonsense\nName that we leave behind at one place often gets before us\nNational honor and interest have been sacrificed to private\nNecessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances\nNeglect them in little things, they will leave you in great\nNegligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing\nNeither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary\nNeither abilities or words enough to call a coach\nNeither retail nor receive scandal willingly\nNever would know anything that he had not a mind to know\nNever read history without having maps\nNever affect the character in which you have a mind to shine\nNever implicitly adopt a character upon common fame\nNever seek for wit; if it presents itself, well and good\nNever to speak of yourself at all\nNever slattern away one minute in idleness\nNever quit a subject till you are thoroughly master of it\nNever maintain an argument with heat and clamor\nNever seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with\nNever saw a froward child mended by whipping\nNever to trust implicitly to the informations of others\nNipped in the bud\nNo great regard for human testimony\nNo man is distrait with the man he fears, or the woman he loves\nNo one feels pleasure, who does not at the same time give it\nNot tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life\nNot to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears\nNot only pure, but, like Caesar's wife, unsuspected\nNot make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them\nNot making use of any one capital letter\nNot to admire anything too much\nNot one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all\nNotes by which dances are now pricked down as well as tunes\nNothing in courts is exactly as it appears to be\nNothing much worth either desiring or fearing\nNothing so precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost\nObserve, without being thought an observer\nOften more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment\nOften necessary, not to manifest all one feels\nOften necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows\nOftener led by their hearts than by their understandings\nOld fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not\nOne must often yield, in order to prevail\nOnly doing one thing at a time\nOnly because she will not, and not because she cannot\nOnly solid and lasting peace, between a man and his wife\nOur understandings are generally the DUPES of our hearts\nOur frivolous dissertations upon the weather, or upon whist\nOut of livery; which makes them both impertinent and useless\nOutward air of modesty to all he does\nOvervalue what we do not know\nOysters, are only in season in the R months\nPasses for a wit, though he hath certainly no uncommon share\nPatience is the only way not to make bad worse\nPatient toleration of certain airs of superiority\nPay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company\nPay them with compliments, but not with confidence\nPeople never desire all till they have gotten a great deal\nPeople lose a great deal of time by reading\nPeople will repay, and with interest too, inattention\nPeople angling for praise\nPeople hate those who make them feel their own inferiority\nPerfection of everything that is worth doing at all\nPerseverance has surprising effects\nPerson to you whom I am very indifferent about, I mean myself\nPettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too young\nPetty jury\nPlain notions of right and wrong\nPlanted while young, that degree of knowledge now my refuge\nPlease all who are worth pleasing; offend none\nPleased to some degree by showing a desire to please\nPleased with him, by making them first pleased with themselves\nPleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in yourself\nPleasure and business with equal inattention\nPleasure is necessarily reciprocal\nPleasure is the rock which most young people split upon\nPleasures do not commonly last so long as life\nPocket all your knowledge with your watch\nPolite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness\nPOLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE\nPrefer useful to frivolous conversations\nPrejudices are our mistresses\nPride remembers it forever\nPride of being the first of the company\nPrudent reserve\nPublic speaking\nPut out your time, but to good interest\nQuarrel with them when they are grown up, for being spoiled\nQuietly cherished error, instead of seeking for truth\nRead my eyes out every day, that I may not hang myself\nRead with caution and distrust\nReal merit of any kind will be discovered\nReal friendship is a slow grower\nReason ought to direct the whole, but seldom does\nReason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does\nReceive them with great civility, but with great incredulity\nReciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form\nRecommend (pleasure) to you, like an Epicurean\nRecommends self-conversation to all authors\nRefuge of people who have neither wit nor invention of their own\nRefuse more gracefully than other people could grant\nRepeating\nRepresent, but do not pronounce\nReserve with your friends\nRespect without timidity\nRespectful without meanness, easy without too much familiarity\nReturn you the ball 'a la volee'\nRich man never borrows\nRichelieu came and shackled the nation\nRochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man very exactly\nRochefoucault\nRough corners which mere nature has given to the smoothest\nRuined their own son by what they called loving him\nSame coolness and unconcern in any and every company\nScandal: receiver is always thought, as bad as the thief\nScarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow\nScarcely any body who is absolutely good for nothing\nScrupled no means to obtain his ends\nSecret, without being dark and mysterious\nSecrets\nSee what you see, and to hear what you hear\nSeem to like and approve of everything at first\nSeeming frankness with a real reserve\nSeeming inattention to the person who is speaking to you\nSeeming openness is prudent\nSeems to have no opinion of his own\nSeldom a misfortune to be childless\nSelf-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults\nSentiment-mongers\nSentiments that were never felt, pompously described\nSerious without being dull\nSettled here for good, as it is called\nShakespeare\nShe has all the reading that a woman should have\nShe who conquers only catches a Tartar\nShe has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a woman\nShepherds and ministers are both men\nSilence in love betrays more woe\nSingularity is only pardonable in old age\nSix, or at most seven hours sleep\nSmile, where you cannot strike\nSome complaisance and attention to fools is prudent\nSome men pass their whole time in doing nothing\nSomething or other is to be got out of everybody\nSomething must be said, but that something must be nothing\nSooner forgive an injury than an insult\nSow jealousies among one's enemies\nSpare the persons while you lash the crimes\nSpeaking to himself in the glass\nStamp-act has proved a most pernicious measure\nStamp-duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay\nState your difficulties, whenever you have any\nSteady assurance, with seeming modesty\nStudied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world\nStyle is the dress of thoughts\nSuccess turns much more upon manner than matter\nSure guide is, he who has often gone the road which you want to\nSuspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgive\nSwearing\nTacitus\nTake the hue of the company you are with\nTake characters, as they do most things, upon trust\nTake, rather than give, the tone of the company you are in\nTake nothing for granted, upon the bare authority of the author\nTaking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinsic merit\nTalent of hating with good-breeding and loving with prudence\nTalk often, but never long\nTalk sillily upon a subject of other people's\nTalk of natural affection is talking nonsense\nTalking of either your own or other people's domestic affairs\nTell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are\nTell stories very seldom\nThe longest life is too short for knowledge\nThe present moments are the only ones we are sure of\nThe best have something bad, and something little\nThe worst have something good, and sometimes something great\nThere are many avenues to every man\nThey thought I informed, because I pleased them\nThin veil of Modesty drawn before Vanity\nThink to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance\nThink yourself less well than you are, in order to be quite so\nThinks himself much worse than he is\nThoroughly, not superficially\nThose who remarkably affect any one virtue\nThose whom you can make like themselves better\nThree passions that often put honesty to most severe trials\nTimidity and diffidence\nTo be heard with success, you must be heard with pleasure\nTo be pleased one must please\nTo govern mankind, one must not overrate them\nTo seem to have forgotten what one remembers\nTo know people's real sentiments, I trust much more to my eyes\nTo great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness\nToo like, and too exact a picture of human nature\nTrifle only with triflers; and be serious only with the serious\nTrifles that concern you are not trifles to me\nTrifling parts, with their little jargon\nTrite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon\nTruth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle\nTruth leaves no room for compliments\nUnaffected silence upon that subject is the only true medium\nUnguarded frankness\nUnintelligible to his readers, and sometimes to himself\nUnopened, because one title in twenty has been omitted\nUnwilling and forced; it will never please\nUse palliatives when you contradict\nUseful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid\nValue of moments, when cast up, is immense\nVanity, interest, and absurdity, always display\nVanity, that source of many of our follies\nWarm and young thanks, not old and cold ones\nWater-drinkers can write nothing good\nWe love to be pleased better than to be informed\nWe have many of those useful prejudices in this country\nWe shall be feared, if we do not show that we fear\nWell dressed, not finely dressed\nWhat pleases you in others, will in general please them in you\nWhat displeases or pleases you in others\nWhat you feel pleases you in them\nWhat have I done to-day?\nWhat is impossible, and what is only difficult\nWhatever pleases you most in others\nWhatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well\nWhatever one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace'\nWhatever real merit you have, other people will discover\nWhen well dressed for the day think no more of it afterward\nWhere one would gain people, remember that nothing is little\nWho takes warning by the fate of others?\nWife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded\nWill not so much as hint at our follies\nWill pay very dear for the quarrels and ambition of a few\nWish you, my dear friend, as many happy new years as you deserve\nWit may created any admirers but makes few friends\nWitty without satire or commonplace\nWoman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased\nWomen are the only refiners of the merit of men\nWomen choose their favorites more by the ear\nWomen are all so far Machiavelians\nWords are the dress of thoughts\nWorld is taken by the outside of things\nWould not tell what she did not know\nWrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations\nWriting anything that may deserve to be read\nWriting what may deserve to be read\nWrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is\nYielded commonly without conviction\nYou must be respectable, if you will be respected\nYou had much better hold your tongue than them\nYoung people are very apt to overrate both men and things\nYoung fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be\nYoung men are as apt to think themselves wise enough\nYour merit and your manners can alone raise you\nYour character there, whatever it is, will get before you here\n\n\nIf you wish to read the entire context of any of these quotations,\nselect a short segment and copy it into your clipboard memory--then open\nthe plain text eBook below and paste the phrase into your computer's\nfind or search operation.\n\nThe Entire Gutenberg Edition of Letters to His Son  (1.66 mb)\nhttps://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/lcewk11.txt","title":"Quotes and Images from Chesterfield's Letters to His Son","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":4807}