Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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Good manners, to those one does not love, are no more a breach of truth, than "your humble servant," at the bottom of a challengeis; they are universally agreed upon, and understand to be things of course. They are necessary guards of the decency and peace of society.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
There is hardly anybody good for everything, and there is scarcely anybody who is absolutely good for nothing.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and, when they say, Have you not heard of such a thing? to answer, No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A man who cannot command his temper should not think of being a man in business.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. These virtue, honor, and knowledge alone can merit, alone can produce.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Smooth your way to the head, through the heart. The way of reason is a good one; but it is commonly something longer, and perhapsnot so sure.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
You should not only have attention to everything, but a quickness of attention, so as to observe at once all the people in the room--their motions, their looks and their words--and yet without staring at them and seeming to be an observer.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
There is not a more prudent maxim, than to live with one's enemies as if they may one day become one's friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or later, in the vicissitudes of political affairs.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Those who see and observe kings, heroes, and statesmen, discover that they have headaches, indigestion, humors and passions, just like other people; every one of which in their turns determine their wills in defiance of their reason.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character, and to ruin his fortune; while wine and the pox content which shall soonest and most effectually destroy his constitution.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I have, by long experience, found women to be like Telephus's spear: if one end kills, the other cures.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
There are people who indulge themselves in a sort of lying, which they reckon innocent, and which in one sense is so; for it hurtsnobody but themselves. This sort of lying is the spurious offspring of vanity, begotten upon folly.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way to merit that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties.

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