A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and when they say, Have not you heard of such a thing? to answer No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.
Lord ChesterfieldNo man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.
Lord ChesterfieldIt is to be presumed, that a man of common sense, who does not desire to please, desires nothing at all; since he must know that he cannot obtain anything without it.
Lord ChesterfieldThe mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.
Lord Chesterfield