Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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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
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 pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

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

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

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
Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep company with people above you.... Do not mistake, when I say company above you, and think that I mean with regard to their birth; that is the least consideration; but I mean with regard to their merit, and the light in which the world considers them.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
In nature the most violent passions are silent; in tragedy they must speak and speak with dignity too.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A joker is near akin to a buffoon; and neither of them is the least related to wit.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life; returns are equally expected for both.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The talent of insinuation is more useful than that of persuasion, as everybody is open to insinuation, but scarce any to persuasion.

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
Few fathers care much for their sons, or at least, most of them care more for their money. Of those who really love their sons, few know how to do it.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The best way to compel weak-minded people to adopt our opinion, is to frighten them from all others, by magnifying their danger.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
People will, in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you upon that which they have of your friends; and there is a Spanish proverb which says vry justly, 'Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are.'

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Great merit or great failings will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world. Examine yourself, why you like such and such people and dislike such and such others; and you will find that those different sentiments proceed from very slight causes.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If a man, notoriously and designedly, insults and affronts you, knock him down; but if he only injures you, your best revenge is to be extremely civil to him in your outward behaviour, though at the same time you counterwork him, and return him the compliment, perhaps with interest.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
You must embrace the man you hate, if you cannot be justified in knocking him down.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Mind not only what people say, but how they say it; and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth by your eyes than by your ears. People can say what they will, but they cannot look just as they will; and their looks frequently (reveal) what their words are calculated to conceal.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A foreign minister, I will maintain it, can never be a good man of business if he is not an agreeable man of pleasure too. Half his business is done by the help of his pleasures: his views are carried on, and perhaps best, and most unsuspectedly, at balls, suppers, assemblies, and parties of pleasure; by intrigues with women, and connections insensibly formed with men, at those unguarded hours of amusement.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Remember, that when I speak of pleasures I always mean the elegant pleasures of a rational being, and not the brutal ones of a swine. I mean la bonne chère, short of gluttony; wine, infinitely short of drunkenness; play, without the least gaming; and gallantry, without debauchery.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Our self-love is mortified, when we think our opinions, and even our tastes, customs, and dresses, either arraigned or condemned;as, on the contrary, it is tickled and flattered by approbation.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I have seen many people, who, while you are speaking to them, instead of looking at, and attending to you, fix their eyes upon theceiling, or some other part of the room, look out of the window, play with a dog, twirl their snuff-box, or pick their nose. Nothing discovers a little, futile, frivolous mind more than this, and nothing is so offensively ill-bred.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two--a proof of the decline of that country.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
One of the greatest difficulties in civil war is, that more art is required to know what should be concealed from our friends, than what ought to be done against our enemies.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The greatest powers cannot injure a man's character whose reputation is unblemished among his party.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield