If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Intimacy]

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Knowledge]

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Knowledge]

Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Knowledge]

Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Laughter]

In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Laughter]

Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Laughter]

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Learning]

One should always think of what one is about: when one is learning, one should not think of play: and when one is at play, one should not think of one's learning.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Learning]

Wear your learning like a watch and do not pull it out merely to show you have it. If you are asked for the time, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly unasked.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Learning]

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Letters]

Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Literature]

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Manners]

Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Manners]

Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Manners]

Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Manners]

A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Men and Women]

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Mind]

I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Mind]

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
~ Lord Chesterfield - [Modesty]