The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 29 January 1748
Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 27 February 1748
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.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 22 February 1748
In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 9 March 1748.
Women, then, are only children of a larger growth.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 5 September 1748.
It must be owned, that the Graces do not seem to be natives of Great Britain; and I doubt, the
best of us here have more of rough than polished diamond.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 18 November 1748
Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 20 July 1749
Putting moral virtues at the highest, and religion at the lowest, religion must still be allowed to
be a collateral security, at least, to virtue; and every prudent man will sooner trust to two
securities than to one.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 8 January 1750
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than
weigh.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 8 May 1750
It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of
truth.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) 6 February 1752.
The chapter of knowledge is very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one.
‘Letters to his Son’ (1774) Letter to Solomon Dayrolles, 16 February 1753
I...could not help reflecting in my way upon the singular ill-luck of this my dear country,
which, as long as ever I remember it, and as far back as I have read, has always been governed by
the only two or three people, out of two or three millions, totally incapable of governing, and
unfit to be trusted.
M. Maty (ed.) ‘Miscellaneous Works’ (1777) vol. 2 ‘Miscellaneous Pieces’ no. 45 (first published in ‘The
World’ 7 October 1756)
Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don’t choose to have it known.
In James Boswell ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ (1934) (3 April 1773)
Give Dayrolles a chair.
Last words, in W. H. Craig ‘Life of Lord Chesterfield’ (1907) p. 343
3.87 G. K. Chesterton 1874-1936