Lord Chesterfield

The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings to judge.

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Never hold any one by the button or the hand in order to be heard out for if people are unwilling to hear you you had better hold your tongue than them.

There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing at once but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time.

When one is learning one should not think of play and when one is at play one should not think of learning.

Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.

You must look into people as well as at them.

Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.

Patience is a most necessary quality for business many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

Advice is seldom welcome and those who want it the most always like it the least.