/staff avatar Quote added by staff

Why not add this to your bookmarks?

  ...these things and many others are necessary ingredients in the composition of the pleasing _je ne scais quoi_, which everybody feels, though nobody can describe. Observe carefully, then, what displeases or pleases you in others, and be persuaded that, in general, the same things will please or displease them in you.
Having mentioned laughing, I must particularly warn you against it; and I would heartily wish that you may often be seen to smile, but never heard to laugh while you live.
Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.   it is the manner in which the mob express their silly joy at silly things; and they call it being merry. In my mind there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter. I am neither of a melancholy nor a cynical disposition, and am as willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody; but I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason nobody has ever heard me laugh. Many people, at first, from awkwardness and _mauvaise honte_, have got a very disagreeable and silly...   Chesterfield, Lord

This quote is tagged Laughter · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

Chat about this quote in the Village Inn   Chat about this quote in the Village Inn

Report errors, facts and updates about this quote in the Village Library   Share corrections or notes in the village Library

A little bit about Chesterfield, Lord

The Earls of Chesterfield were an aristocratic family from Derbyshire, England. Their ancestral seat is Bretby Hall at Bretby, Derbyshire, and their family name is "Stanhope". Upon the death of the thirteenth Earl, the title became extinct, as no more male descendants of the first Earl were living. · Can we improve this biography? Post your version

More on the Author

These people bookmarked this quote:

More on the author

This quote around the web

Loading...

 

More on this author