Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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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
Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Give nobly to indigent merit, and do not refuse your charity even to those who have not merit but their misery.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I have been too long acquainted with human nature to have great regard for human testimony; and a very great degree of probability, supported by various concurrent circumstances, conspiring in one point, will have much greater weight with me, than human testimony upon oath, or even upon honour; both of which I have frequently seen considerably warped by private views.

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
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
Should you be unfortunate enough to have vices, you may, to a certain degree, even dignify them by a strict observance of decorum;at least they will lose something of their natural turpitude.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to be slighted, and thinks everything that is said meant at him.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as singular as I please, but you may not.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Awkwardness is a more real disadvantage than it is generally thought to be; it often occasions ridicule, it always lessens dignity.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally have nothing told him.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The company of women of fashion will improve your manners, though not your understanding; and that complaisance and politeness, which are so useful in men's company, can only be acquired in women's.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Gold and silver are but merchandise, as well as cloth or linen; and that nation that buys the least, and sells the most, must always have the most money.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Experience only can teach men not to prefer what strikes them for the present moment, to what will have much greater weight with the them hereafter.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The permanency of most friendships depends upon the continuity of good fortune.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveler.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.

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
Whenever I go to an opera, I leave my sense and reason at the door with my half-guinea, and deliver myself up to my eyes and my ears.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The rulers of the earth are all worth knowing; they suggest moral reflections: and the respect that one naturally has for God's vice-regents here on earth is greatly increased by acquaintance with them.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Deserve a great deal, and you shall have a great deal; deserve little, and you shall have but a little; and be good for nothing atall, and I assure you, you shall have nothing at all.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield