BATH, November 5,
1769.
MADAM: I remember very well the paragraph
which you quote from a letter of mine to Mrs. du Bouchet, and see
no reason yet to retract that opinion, in general, which at least
nineteen widows in twenty had authorized. I had not then the
pleasure of your acquaintance: I had seen you but twice or thrice;
and I had no reason to think that you would deviate, as you have
done, from other widows, so much as to put perpetual shackles upon
yourself, for the sake of your children. But (if I may use a
vulgarism) one swallow makes no summer: five righteous were
formerly necessary to save a city, and they could not be found; so,
till I find four more such righteous widows as yourself, I shall
entertain my former notions of widowhood in general.
I can assure you that I drink here very
soberly and cautiously, and at the same time keep so cool a diet
that I do not find the least symptom of heat, much less of
inflammation. By the way, I never had that complaint, in
consequence of having drank these waters; for I have had it but
four times, and always in the middle of summer. Mr. Hawkins is
timorous, even to minutia, and my sister delights in them.
Charles will be a scholar, if you please;
but our little Philip, without being one, will be something or
other as good, though I do not yet guess what. I am not of the
opinion generally entertained in this country, that man lives by
Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of
two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which
are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge
in my opinion consists of modern languages, history, and geography;
some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with
custom, and for closet amusement.
You are, by this time, certainly tired with
this long letter, which I could prove to you from Horace's own
words (for I am a scholar) to be a bad one; he says, that
water-drinkers can write nothing good: so I am, with real truth and
esteem, your most faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.
LETTER
CCCXVII
BATH, October 9,
1770.
MADAM: I am extremely obliged to you for the
kind part which you take in my health and life: as to the latter, I
am as indifferent myself as any other body can be; but as to the
former, I confess care and anxiety, for while I am to crawl upon
this planet, I would willingly enjoy the health at least of an
insect. How far these waters will restore me to that, moderate
degree of health, which alone I aspire at, I have not yet given
them a fair trial, having drank them but one week; the only
difference I hitherto find is, that I sleep better than I
did.
I beg that you will neither give yourself,
nor Mr. Fitzhugh, much trouble about the pine plants; for as it is
three years before they fruit, I might as well, at my age, plant
oaks, and hope to have the advantage of their timber: however,
somebody or other, God knows who, will eat them, as somebody or
other will fell and sell the oaks I planted five-and-forty years
ago.
I hope our boys are well; my respects to
them both. I am, with the greatest truth, your faithful and humble
servant, CHESTERFIELD.
LETTER
CCCXVIII
BATH, November
4,1770
MADAM: The post has been more favorable to
you than I intended it should, for, upon my word, I answered your
former letter the post after I had received it. However you have
got a loss, as we say sometimes in Ireland.
My friends from time to time require bills
of health from me in these suspicious times, when the plague is
busy in some parts of Europe. All I can say, in answer to their
kind inquiries, is, that I have not the distemper properly called
the plague; but that I have all the plague of old age and of a
shattered carcass. These waters have done me what little good I
expected from them; though by no means what I could have wished,
for I wished them to be 'les eaux de Jouvence'.
I had a letter, the other day, from our two
boys; Charles' was very finely written, and Philip's very prettily:
they are perfectly well, and say that they want nothing. What
grown-up people will or can say as much? I am, with the truest
esteem, Madam, your most faithful servant. CHESTERFIELD.
LETTER
CCCXIX
BATH, October
27,1771.
MADAM: Upon my word, you interest yourself
in the state of my existence more than I do myself; for it is worth
the care of neither of us. I ordered my valet de chambre, according
to your orders, to inform you of my safe arrival here; to which I
can add nothing, being neither better nor worse than I was
then.
I am very glad that our boys are well. Pray
give them the inclosed.
I am not at all surprised at Mr.---'s
conversion, for he was, at seventeen, the idol of old women, for
his gravity, devotion, and dullness. I am, Madam, your most
faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.
LETTER
CCCXX
TO CHARLES AND
PHILIP STANHOPE
I RECEIVED a few days ago two the best
written letters that ever I saw in my life; the one signed Charles
Stanhope, the other Philip Stanhope. As for you Charles, I did not
wonder at it; for you will take pains, and are a lover of letters;
but you, idle rogue, you Phil, how came you to write so well that
one can almost say of you two, 'et cantare pores et respondre
parati'! Charles will explain this Latin to you.
I am told, Phil, that you have got a
nickname at school, from your intimacy with Master Strangeways; and
that they call you Master Strangeways; for to be rude, you are a
strange boy. Is this true?
Tell me what you would have me bring you
both from hence, and I will bring it you, when I come to town. In
the meantime, God bless you both!
CHESTERFIELD.
PG EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
A little learning is a dangerous thing
A joker is near akin to a buffoon
A favor may make an enemy, and an injury may
make a friend
Ablest man will sometimes do weak
things
Above all things, avoid speaking of
yourself
Above the frivolous as below the important
and the secret
Above trifles, he is never vehement and
eager about them
Absolute command of your temper
Abstain from learned ostentation
Absurd term of genteel and fashionable
vices
Absurd romances of the two last
centuries
According as their interest prompts them to
wish
Acquainted with books, and an absolute
stranger to men
Advice is seldom welcome
Advise those who do not speak elegantly, not
to speak
Advocate, the friend, but not the bully of
virtue
Affectation of singularity or
superiority
Affectation in dress
Affectation of business
All have senses to be gratified
Always made the best of the best, and never
made bad worse
Always does more than he says
Always some favorite word for the time
being
Always look people in the face when you
speak to them
Am still unwell; I cannot help it!
American Colonies
Ancients and Moderns
Anxiety for my health and life
Applauded often, without approving
Apt to make them think themselves more
necessary than they are
Argumentative, polemical conversations
Arrogant pedant
Art of pleasing is the most necessary
As willing and as apt to be pleased as
anybody
Ascribing the greatest actions to the most
trifling causes
Assenting, but without being servile and
abject
Assertion instead of argument
Assign the deepest motives for the most
trifling actions
Assurance and intrepidity
At the first impulse of passion, be silent
till you can be soft
Attacked by ridicule, and, punished with
contempt
Attend to the objects of your expenses, but
not to the sums
Attention to the inside of books
Attention and civility please all
Attention
Author is obscure and difficult in his own
language
Authority
Avoid cacophony, and, what is very near as
bad, monotony
Avoid singularity
Awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and
actions
Be neither transported nor depressed by the
accidents of life
Be silent till you can be soft
Being in the power of every man to hurt
him
Being intelligible is now no longer the
fashion
Better not to seem to understand, than to
reply
Better refuse a favor gracefully, than to
grant it clumsily
Blindness of the understanding is as much to
be pitied
Bold, but with great seeming modesty
Boroughjobber
Business must be well, not affectedly
dressed
Business now is to shine, not to weigh
Business by no means forbids pleasures
BUT OF THIS EVERY MAN WILL BELIEVE AS HE
THINKS PROPER
Can hardly be said to see what they
see
Cannot understand them, or will not desire
to understand them
Cardinal Mazarin
Cardinal Richelieu
Cardinal de Retz
Cardinal Virtues, by first degrading them
into weaknesses
Cautious how we draw inferences
Cease to love when you cease to be
agreeable
Chameleon, be able to take every different
hue
Characters, that never existed, are
insipidly displayed
Cheerful in the countenance, but without
laughing
Chitchat, useful to keep off improper and
too serious subjects
Choose your pleasures for yourself
Civility, which is a disposition to
accommodate and oblige others
Clamorers triumph
Close, without being costive
Command of our temper, and of our
countenance
Commanding with dignity, you must serve up
to it with diligence
Committing acts of hostility upon the
Graces
Common sense (which, in truth, very
uncommon)
Commonplace observations
Company is, in truth, a constant state of
negotiation
Complaisance
Complaisance to every or anybody's
opinion
Complaisance due to the custom of the
place
Complaisant indulgence for people's
weaknesses
Conceal all your learning carefully
Concealed what learning I had
Conjectures pass upon us for truths
Conjectures supply the defect of
unattainable knowledge
Connections
Connive at knaves, and tolerate fools
Consciousness of merit makes a man of sense
more modest
Consciousness and an honest pride of doing
well
Consider things in the worst light, to show
your skill
Contempt
Contempt
Contempt
Content yourself with mediocrity in
nothing
Conversationstock being a joint and common
property
Conversation will help you almost as much as
books
Converse with his inferiors without
insolence
Dance to those who pipe
Darkness visible
Decides peremptorily upon every
subject
Deep learning is generally tainted with
pedantry
Deepest learning, without goodbreeding, is
unwelcome
Defended by arms, adorned by manners, and
improved by laws
Deserve a little, and you shall have but a
little
Desire to please, and that is the main
point
Desirous of praise from the
praiseworthy
Desirous to make you their friend
Desirous of pleasing
Despairs of ever being able to pay
Dexterity enough to conceal a truth without
telling a lie
Dictate to them while you seem to be
directed by them
Difference in everything between system and
practice
Difficulties seem to them,
impossibilities
Dignity to be kept up in pleasures, as well
as in business
Disagreeable to seem reserved, and very
dangerous not to be so
Disagreeable things may be done so agreeably
as almost to oblige
Disputes with heat
Dissimulation is only to hide our own
cards
Distinction between simulation and
dissimulation
Distinguish between the useful and the
curious
Do as you would be done by
Do not become a virtuoso of small
wares
Do what you are about
Do what you will but do something all day
long
Do as you would be done by
Do not mistake the tinsel of Tasso for the
gold of Virgil
Does not give it you, but he inflicts it
upon you
Doing, 'de bonne grace', what you could not
help doing
Doing what may deserve to be written
Doing nothing, and might just as well be
asleep
Doing anything that will deserve to be
written
Done under concern and embarrassment, must
be ill done
Dress like the reasonable people of your own
age
Dress well, and not too well
Dressed as the generality of people of
fashion are
Ears to hear, but not sense enough to
judge
Easy without negligence
Easy without too much familiarity
Economist of your time
Either do not think, or do not love to
think
Elegance in one language will reproduce
itself in all
Employ your whole time, which few people
do
Endeavor to hear, and know all
opinions
Endeavors to please and oblige our
fellowcreatures
Enemies as if they may one day become one's
friends
Enjoy all those advantages
Equally forbid insolent contempt, or low
envy and jealousy
ERE TITTERING YOUTH SHALL SHOVE YOU FROM THE
STAGE
Establishing a character of integrity and
good manners
Even where you are sure, seem rather
doubtful
Every numerous assembly is MOB
Every virtue, has its kindred vice or
weakness
Every man knows that he understands religion
and politics
Every numerous assembly is a mob
Every man pretends to common sense
EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST
Everybody is good for something
Everything has a better and a worse
side
Exalt the gentle in woman and man__above the
merely genteel
Expresses himself with more fire than
elegance
Extremely weary of this silly world
Eyes and the ears are the only roads to the
heart
Eyes and ears open and mouth mostly
shut
Feed him, and feed upon him at the same
time
Few things which people in general know
less, than how to love
Few people know how to love, or how to
hate
Few dare dissent from an established
opinion
Fiddlefaddle stories, that carry no
information along with them
Fit to live__or not live at all
Flattering people behind their backs
Flattery of women
Flattery
Flexibility of manners is necessary in the
course of the world
Fools, who can never be undeceived
Fools never perceive where they are
illtimed
Forge accusations against themselves
Forgive, but not approve, the bad.
Fortune stoops to the forward and the
bold
Frank without indiscretion
Frank, but without indiscretion
Frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a
prudent interior
Frequently make friends of enemies, and
enemies of friends
Friendship upon very slight
acquaintance
Frivolous, idle people, whose time hangs
upon their own hands
Frivolous curiosity about trifles
Frivolous and superficial pertness
Fullbottomed wigs were contrived for his
humpback
Gain the heart, or you gain nothing
Gain the affections as well as the
esteem
Gainer by your misfortune
General conclusions from certain particular
principles
Generosity often runs into profusion
Genteel without affectation
Gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at
first sight
Gentleness of manners, with firmness of
mind
Geography and history are very imperfect
separately
German, who has taken into his head that he
understands French
Go to the bottom of things
Good manners
Good reasons alleged are seldom the true
ones
Good manners are the settled medium of
social life
Good company
Goodbreeding
Graces: Without us, all labor is vain
Gratitude not being universal, nor even
common
Grave without the affectation of
wisdom
Great learning; which, if not accompanied
with sound judgment
Great numbers of people met together,
animate each other
Greatest fools are the greatest liars
Grow wiser when it is too late
Guard against those who make the most court
to you
Habit and prejudice
Habitual eloquence
Half done or half known
Hardened to the wants and distresses of
mankind
Hardly any body good for every thing
Haste and hurry are very different
things
Have no pleasures but your own
Have a will and an opinion of your own, and
adhere to it
Have I employed my time, or have I
squandered it?
Have but one set of jokes to live upon
Have you learned to carve?
He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds
He will find it out of himself without your
endeavors
Heart has such an influence over the
understanding
Helps only, not as guides
Herd of mankind can hardly be said to
think
Historians
Holiday eloquence
Home, be it ever so homely
Honest error is to be pitied, not
ridiculed
Honestest man loves himself best
Horace
How troublesome an old correspondent must be
to a young one
How much you have to do; and how little time
to do it in
Human nature is always the same
Hurt those they love by a mistaken
indulgence
I hope, I wish, I doubt, and fear
alternately
I shall never know, though all the
coffeehouses here do.
I shall always love you as you shall
deserve.
I know myself (no common piece of knowledge,
let me tell you)
I CANNOT DO SUCH A THING
I, who am not apt to know anything that I do
not know
Idleness is only the refuge of weak
minds
If free from the guilt, be free from the
suspicion, too
If you would convince others, seem open to
conviction yourself
If I don't mind his orders he won't mind my
draughts
If you will persuade, you must first
please
If once we quarrel, I will never
forgive
Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished
their chains
Impertinent insult upon custom and
fashion
Improve yourself with the old, divert
yourself with the young
Inaction at your age is unpardonable
Inattention
Inattentive, absent; and distrait
Inclined to be fat, but I hope you will
decline it
Incontinency of friendship among young
fellows
Indiscriminate familiarity
Indiscriminately loading their memories with
every part alike
Indolence
Indolently say that they cannot do
Infallibly to be gained by every sort of
flattery
Information is, in a certain degree,
mortifying
Information implies our previous ignorance;
it must be sweetened
Injury is much sooner forgotten than an
insult
Inquisition
Insinuates himself only into the esteem of
fools
Insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in
everything else
Insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling
yourself
Insolent civility
INTOLERATION in religious, and inhospitality
in civil matters
Intrinsic, and not their imaginary
value
It is a real inconvenience to anybody to be
fat
It is not sufficient to deserve well; one
must please well too
Jealous of being slighted
Jog on like man and wife; that is, seldom
agreeing
Judge of every man's truth by his degree of
understanding
Judge them all by their merits, but not by
their ages
Judges from the appearances of things, and
not from the reality
Keep your own temper and artfully warm other
people's
Keep good company, and company above
yourself
Kick him upstairs
King's popularity is a better guard than
their army
Know their real value, and how much they are
generally overrated
Know the true value of time
Know, yourself and others
Knowing how much you have, and how little
you want
Knowing any language imperfectly
Knowledge is like power in this
respect
Knowledge: either despise it, or think that
they have enough
Knowledge of a scholar with the manners of a
courtier
Known people pretend to vices they had
not
Knows what things are little, and what
not
Labor is the unavoidable fatigue of a
necessary journey
Labor more to put them in conceit with
themselves
Last beautiful varnish, which raises the
colors
Laughing, I must particularly warn you
against it
Lay down a method for everything, and stick
to it inviolably
Lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous
mind
Learn to keep your own secrets
Learn, if you can, the WHY and the
WHEREFORE
Leave the company, at least as soon as he is
wished out of it
Led, much oftener by little things than by
great ones
Less one has to do, the less time one finds
to do it in
Let me see more of you in your letters
Let them quietly enjoy their errors in
taste
Let nobody discover that you do know your
own value
Let nothing pass till you understand
it
Let blockheads read what blockheads
wrote
Life of ignorance is not only a very
contemptible, but tiresome
Listlessness and indolence are always
blameable
Little minds mistake little objects for
great ones
Little failings and weaknesses
Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob
Love with him, who they think is the most in
love with them
Loved without being despised, and feared
without being hated
Low company, most falsely and impudently,
call pleasure
Low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that
always excite laughter
Luther's disappointed avarice
Machiavel
Made him believe that the world was made for
him
Make a great difference between companions
and friends
Make himself whatever he pleases, except a
good poet
Make yourself necessary
Make every man I met with like me, and every
woman love me
Man is dishonored by not resenting an
affront
Man or woman cannot resist an engaging
exterior
Man of sense may be in haste, but can never
be in a hurry
Man who is only good on holydays is good for
very little
Mangles what he means to carve
Manner is full as important as the
matter
Manner of doing things is often more
important
Manners must adorn knowledge
Many things which seem extremely probable
are not true
Many are very willing, and very few
able
Mastery of one's temper
May you live as long as you are fit to live,
but no longer!
May you rather die before you cease to be
fit to live
May not forget with ease what you have with
difficulty learned
Mazarin and Lewis the Fourteenth riveted the
shackles
Meditation and reflection
Mere reason and good sense is never to be
talked to a mob
Merit and goodbreeding will make their way
everywhere
Method
Mistimes or misplaces everything
Mitigating, engaging words do by no means
weaken your argument
MOB: Understanding they have collectively
none
Moderation with your enemies
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle
for praise
Money, the cause of much mischief
More people have ears to be tickled, than
understandings to judge
More one sees, the less one either wonders
or admires
More you know, the modester you should
be
More one works, the more willing one is to
work
Mortifying inferiority in knowledge, rank,
fortune
Most people enjoy the inferiority of their
best friends
Most long talkers single out some one
unfortunate man in company
Most ignorant are, as usual, the boldest
conjecturers
Most people have ears, but few have
judgment; tickle those ears
Much sooner forgive an injustice than an
insult
My own health varies, as usual, but never
deviates into good
Mystical nonsense
Name that we leave behind at one place often
gets before us
National honor and interest have been
sacrificed to private
Necessity of scrupulously preserving the
appearances
Neglect them in little things, they will
leave you in great
Negligence of it implies an indifference
about pleasing
Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am
very weary
Neither abilities or words enough to call a
coach
Neither retail nor receive scandal
willingly
Never would know anything that he had not a
mind to know
Never read history without having maps
Never affect the character in which you have
a mind to shine
Never implicitly adopt a character upon
common fame
Never seek for wit; if it presents itself,
well and good
Never to speak of yourself at all
Never slattern away one minute in
idleness
Never quit a subject till you are thoroughly
master of it
Never maintain an argument with heat and
clamor
Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the
people you are with
Never saw a froward child mended by
whipping
Never to trust implicitly to the
informations of others
Nipped in the bud
No great regard for human testimony
No man is distrait with the man he fears, or
the woman he loves
No one feels pleasure, who does not at the
same time give it
Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom
of the hill of life
Not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes
or one's fears
Not only pure, but, like Caesar's wife,
unsuspected
Not make their want still worse by grieving
and regretting them
Not making use of any one capital
letter
Not to admire anything too much
Not one minute of the day in which you do
nothing at all
Notes by which dances are now pricked down
as well as tunes
Nothing in courts is exactly as it appears
to be
Nothing much worth either desiring or
fearing
Nothing so precious as time, and so
irrecoverable when lost
Observe, without being thought an
observer
Often more necessary to conceal contempt
than resentment
Often necessary, not to manifest all one
feels
Often necessary to seem ignorant of what one
knows
Oftener led by their hearts than by their
understandings
Old fellow ought to seem wise whether he
really be so or not
One must often yield, in order to
prevail
Only doing one thing at a time
Only because she will not, and not because
she cannot
Only solid and lasting peace, between a man
and his wife
Our understandings are generally the DUPES
of our hearts
Our frivolous dissertations upon the
weather, or upon whist
Out of livery; which makes them both
impertinent and useless
Outward air of modesty to all he does
Overvalue what we do not know
Oysters, are only in season in the R
months
Passes for a wit, though he hath certainly
no uncommon share
Patience is the only way not to make bad
worse
Patient toleration of certain airs of
superiority
Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the
whole company
Pay them with compliments, but not with
confidence
People never desire all till they have
gotten a great deal
People lose a great deal of time by
reading
People will repay, and with interest too,
inattention
People angling for praise
People hate those who make them feel their
own inferiority
Perfection of everything that is worth doing
at all
Perseverance has surprising effects
Person to you whom I am very indifferent
about, I mean myself
Pettish, pouting conduct is a great deal too
young
Petty jury
Plain notions of right and wrong
Planted while young, that degree of
knowledge now my refuge
Please all who are worth pleasing; offend
none
Pleased to some degree by showing a desire
to please
Pleased with him, by making them first
pleased with themselves
Pleasing in company is the only way of being
pleased in yourself
Pleasure and business with equal
inattention
Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal
Pleasure is the rock which most young people
split upon
Pleasures do not commonly last so long as
life
Pocket all your knowledge with your
watch
Polite, but without the troublesome forms
and stiffness
POLITICIANS NEITHER LOVE NOR HATE
Prefer useful to frivolous
conversations
Prejudices are our mistresses
Pride remembers it forever
Pride of being the first of the
company
Prudent reserve
Public speaking
Put out your time, but to good
interest
Quarrel with them when they are grown up,
for being spoiled
Quietly cherished error, instead of seeking
for truth
Read my eyes out every day, that I may not
hang myself
Read with caution and distrust
Real merit of any kind will be
discovered
Real friendship is a slow grower
Reason ought to direct the whole, but seldom
does
Reason, which always ought to direct
mankind, seldom does
Receive them with great civility, but with
great incredulity
Reciprocally profess wishes which they
seldom form
Recommend (pleasure) to you, like an
Epicurean
Recommends selfconversation to all
authors
Refuge of people who have neither wit nor
invention of their own
Refuse more gracefully than other people
could grant
Repeating
Represent, but do not pronounce
Reserve with your friends
Respect without timidity
Respectful without meanness, easy without
too much familiarity
Return you the ball 'a la volee'
Rich man never borrows
Richelieu came and shackled the nation
Rochefoucault, who, I am afraid, paints man
very exactly
Rochefoucault
Rough corners which mere nature has given to
the smoothest
Ruined their own son by what they called
loving him
Same coolness and unconcern in any and every
company
Scandal: receiver is always thought, as bad
as the thief
Scarce any flattery is too gross for them to
swallow
Scarcely any body who is absolutely good for
nothing
Scrupled no means to obtain his ends
Secret, without being dark and
mysterious
Secrets
See what you see, and to hear what you
hear
Seem to like and approve of everything at
first
Seeming frankness with a real reserve
Seeming inattention to the person who is
speaking to you
Seeming openness is prudent
Seems to have no opinion of his own
Seldom a misfortune to be childless
Selflove draws a thick veil between us and
our faults
Sentimentmongers
Sentiments that were never felt, pompously
described
Serious without being dull
Settled here for good, as it is called
Shakespeare
She has all the reading that a woman should
have
She who conquers only catches a Tartar
She has uncommon, sense and knowledge for a
woman
Shepherds and ministers are both men
Silence in love betrays more woe
Singularity is only pardonable in old
age
Six, or at most seven hours sleep
Smile, where you cannot strike
Some complaisance and attention to fools is
prudent
Some men pass their whole time in doing
nothing
Something or other is to be got out of
everybody
Something must be said, but that something
must be nothing
Sooner forgive an injury than an
insult
Sow jealousies among one's enemies
Spare the persons while you lash the
crimes
Speaking to himself in the glass
Stampact has proved a most pernicious
measure
Stampduty, which our Colonists absolutely
refuse to pay
State your difficulties, whenever you have
any
Steady assurance, with seeming modesty
Studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest
women in the world
Style is the dress of thoughts
Success turns much more upon manner than
matter
Sure guide is, he who has often gone the
road which you want to
Suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever
so old, ever forgive
Swearing
Tacitus
Take the hue of the company you are
with
Take characters, as they do most things,
upon trust
Take, rather than give, the tone of the
company you are in
Take nothing for granted, upon the bare
authority of the author
Taking up adventitious, proves their want of
intrinsic merit
Talent of hating with goodbreeding and
loving with prudence
Talk often, but never long
Talk sillily upon a subject of other
people's
Talk of natural affection is talking
nonsense
Talking of either your own or other people's
domestic affairs
Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell
you who you are
Tell stories very seldom
The longest life is too short for
knowledge
The present moments are the only ones we are
sure of
The best have something bad, and something
little
The worst have something good, and sometimes
something great
There are many avenues to every man
They thought I informed, because I pleased
them
Thin veil of Modesty drawn before
Vanity
Think to atone by zeal for their want of
merit and importance
Think yourself less well than you are, in
order to be quite so
Thinks himself much worse than he is
Thoroughly, not superficially
Those who remarkably affect any one
virtue
Those whom you can make like themselves
better
Three passions that often put honesty to
most severe trials
Timidity and diffidence
To be heard with success, you must be heard
with pleasure
To be pleased one must please
To govern mankind, one must not overrate
them
To seem to have forgotten what one
remembers
To know people's real sentiments, I trust
much more to my eyes
To great caution, you can join seeming
frankness and openness
Too like, and too exact a picture of human
nature
Trifle only with triflers; and be serious
only with the serious
Trifles that concern you are not trifles to
me
Trifling parts, with their little
jargon
Trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to
a buffoon
Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the
invariable principle
Truth leaves no room for compliments
Unaffected silence upon that subject is the
only true medium
Unguarded frankness
Unintelligible to his readers, and sometimes
to himself
Unopened, because one title in twenty has
been omitted
Unwilling and forced; it will never
please
Use palliatives when you contradict
Useful sometimes to see the things which one
ought to avoid
Value of moments, when cast up, is
immense
Vanity, interest, and absurdity, always
display
Vanity, that source of many of our
follies
Warm and young thanks, not old and cold
ones
Waterdrinkers can write nothing good
We love to be pleased better than to be
informed
We have many of those useful prejudices in
this country
We shall be feared, if we do not show that
we fear
Well dressed, not finely dressed
What pleases you in others, will in general
please them in you
What displeases or pleases you in
others
What you feel pleases you in them
What have I done today?
What is impossible, and what is only
difficult
Whatever pleases you most in others
Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth
doing well
Whatever one must do, one should do 'de
bonne grace'
Whatever real merit you have, other people
will discover
When well dressed for the day think no more
of it afterward
Where one would gain people, remember that
nothing is little
Who takes warning by the fate of
others?
Wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom
minded
Will not so much as hint at our
follies
Will pay very dear for the quarrels and
ambition of a few
Wish you, my dear friend, as many happy new
years as you deserve
Wit may created any admirers but makes few
friends
Witty without satire or commonplace
Woman like her, who has always pleased, and
often been pleased
Women are the only refiners of the merit of
men
Women choose their favorites more by the
ear
Women are all so far Machiavelians
Words are the dress of thoughts
World is taken by the outside of
things
Would not tell what she did not know
Wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse
speculations
Writing anything that may deserve to be
read
Writing what may deserve to be read
Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt
never is
Yielded commonly without conviction
You must be respectable, if you will be
respected
You had much better hold your tongue than
them
Young people are very apt to overrate both
men and things
Young fellow ought to be wiser than he
should seem to be
Young men are as apt to think themselves
wise enough
Your merit and your manners can alone raise
you
Your character there, whatever it is, will
get before you here
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Letters to His Son, by The Earl of
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