Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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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
Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes.

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
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
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
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
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
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
All I desire for my own burial, is not to be buried alive; but how or where, I think, must be entirely indifferent to every rational creature.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Real merit of any kind cannot long be concealed; it will be discovered, and nothing can depreciate it but a man exhibiting it himself. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If you have wit, use it to please and not to hurt: you may shine like the sun in the temperate zones without scorching.

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
To take a wife merely as an agreeable and rational companion, will commonly be found to be a grand mistake.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
No woman ever yet either reasoned or acted long together consequentially; but some little thing, some love, some resentment, somepresent momentary interest, some supposed slight, or some humour, always breaks in upon, and oversets their most prudent resolutions and schemes.

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
Nature has hardly formed a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience; which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and ineffective.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Those whom you can make like themselves better will, I promise you, like you very well.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Were you to converse with a king, you ought to be as easy and unembarrassed as with your own valet-de chambre; but yet every look,word, and action should imply the utmost respect.... You must wait till you are spoken to; you must receive, not give, the subject of conversation, and you must even take care that the given subject of such conversation do not lead you into any impropriety.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon; they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compassto direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel; for want of which, pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Cardinal Mazarin was a great knave, but no great man; much more cunning than able; scandalously false and dirtily greedy.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I love every-day senses, every-day wit and entertainment; a man who is only good on holidays, is good for very little.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
When you have found out the prevailing passion of any man, remember never to trust him where that passion is concerned.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Armies, though always the supporters and tools of absolute power for the time being, are always the destroyers of it too; by frequently changing the hands in which they think proper to lodge it.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Violent measures are always dangerous, but, when necessary, may then be looked on as wise. They have, however, the advantage of never being matter of indifference; and, when well concerted, must be decisive.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Spirit is now a very fashionable word: to act with Spirit, to speak with Spirit, means only to act rashly, and to talk indiscreetly. An able man shows his Spirit by gentle words and resolute actions; he is neither hot nor timid.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Enjoy pleasures, but let them be your own, and then you will taste them.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
There is a sort of veteran women of condition, who, having lived always in the grand mode, and having possibly had some gallantries, together with the experience of five and twenty or thirty years, form a young fellow better than all the rules that can be given him.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield