Philip Stanhope, 4Th Earl Of Chesterfield Quotes

A young man, be his merit what it will, can never raise himself; but must, like the ivy round the oak, twine himself round some man of great power and interest.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, the steadiness of your resentment.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Women are only children of a larger growth. A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Being pretty on the inside means you don't hit your brother and you eat all your peas - that's what my grandma taught me.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Remember, as long as you live, that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honor unwounded.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he generally converses with are.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Gratitude is a burden upon our imperfect nature, and we are but too willing to ease ourselves of it, or at least to lighten it as much as we can.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

It is always right to detect a fraud, and to perceive a folly; but it is very often wrong to expose either. A man of business should always have his eyes open, but must often seem to have them shut.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In those days he was wiser than he is now - he used frequently to take my advice.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Whoever incites anger has a strong insurance against indifference.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Take the tone of the company you are in.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

The more one works, the more willing one is to work.

- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield