Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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

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
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
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
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Though we cannot totally change our nature, we may in great measure correct it by reflection and philosophy; and some philosophy is a very necessary companion in this world, where, even to the most fortunate, the chances are greatly against happiness.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Without any extraordinary effort of genius, I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose, that men were better, braver, or wiser, fifteen hundred or three thousand years ago, than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If you will please people, you must please them in their own way.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A man of sense soon discovers, because he carefully observes, where and how long he is welcome; and takes care to leave the company at least as soon as he is wished out of it. Fools never perceive whether they are ill timed or ill placed.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
So much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies, that every man is more the man of the day than a regular and consequential character.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If you love music hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light; brings him into a great deal of bad company; and takes up a great deal of time, which might be much better employed.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The dews of the evening most carefully shun —
Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Half the business is done, when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact it.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The New Year is the season in which custom seems more particularly to authorize civil and harmless lies, under the name of compliments. People reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form and concern which they seldom feel.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
It is hard to say which is the greatest fool: he who tells the whole truth, or he who tells no truth at all. Character is as necessary in business as in trade. No man can deceive often in either.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield