Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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

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
An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Whatever poets may write, or fools believe, of rural innocence and truth, and of the perfidy of courts, this is most undoubtedly true,--that shepherds and ministers are both men; their natures and passions the same, the modes of them only different.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I am provoked at the contempt which most historians show for humanity in general; one would think by them, that the whole human species consisted but of about a hundred and fifty people, called and dignified (commonly very undeservedly too) by the titles of Emperors, Kings, Popes, Generals, and Ministers.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Six, or at most seven, hours' sleep is, for a constancy, as much as you or anybody else can want; more is only laziness and dozing, and is, I am persuaded, both unwholesome and stupefying.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
In order to judge of the inside of others, study your own; for men in general are very much alike, and though one has one prevailing passion, and another has another, yet their operations are much the same; and whatever engages or disgusts, pleases, or offends you in others will engage, disgust, please or offend others in you.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Good-breeding carries along with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill-breeding invites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people's weaknesses and infirmities, for the sake either of diverting the company, or of showing your own superiority. You may get the laugh on your side by it for the present; but you will make enemies by it for ever; and even those who laugh with you then, will, upon reflection, fear, and consequently hate you.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The vulgar look upon a man, who is reckoned a fine speaker, as a phenomenon, a supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiargift of Heaven; they stare at him, if he walks in the park, and cry, that is he. You will, I am sure, view him in a juster light, and nulla formidine. You will consider him only as a man of good sense, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution, and the elegancy of style. The miracle will then cease.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle of every man who hath either religion, honour, or prudence. Thosewho violate it, may be cunning, but they are not able. Lies and perfidy are the refuge of fools and cowards.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Little secrets are commonly told again, but great ones generally kept.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Seek always for the best words and the happiest expression you can find.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
To know a little of anything gives neither satisfaction nor credit, but often brings disgrace or ridicule.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run downby much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The greatest dangers have their allurements, if the want of success is likely to be attended with a degree of glory. Middling dangers are horrid, when the loss of reputation is the inevitable consequence of ill success.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company; this being one of the few cases in which people do not care to be treated, every one being fully convinced that he has wherewithal to pay.

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
Those who travel heedlessly from place to place, observing only their distance from each other, and attending only to their accommodation at the inn at night, set out fools, and will certainly return so

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I am grown old, and have possibly lost a great deal of that fire, which formerly made me love fire in others at any rate, and however attended with smoke: but now I must have all sense, and cannot, for the sake of five righteous lines, forgive a thousand absurd ones.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Business by no means forbids pleasures; on the contrary, they reciprocally season each other; and I will venture to affirm that noman enjoys either in perfection that does not join both.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A man of fashion never has recourse to proverbs, and vulgar aphorisms; uses neither favourite words nor hard words, but takes great care to speak very correctly and grammatically, and to pronounce properly; that is, according to the usage of the best companies.

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
We are really so prejudiced by our educations, that, as the ancients deified their heroes, we deify their madmen.

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
Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, asit is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Anne of Austria (with great submission to a Crowned Head do I say it) was a B----. She had spirit and courage without parts, devotion without common morality, and lewdness without tenderness either to justify or to dignify it. Her two sons were no more Lewis the Thirteen's than they were mine.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
This is the day when people reciprocally offer, and receive, the kindest and the warmest wishes, though, in general, without meaning them on one side, or believing them on the other. They are formed by the head, in compliance with custom, though disavowed by the heart, in consequence of nature.

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
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