Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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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
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
Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I can hardly bring myself to caution you against drinking, because I am persuaded that I am writing to a rational creature, a gentleman, and not to a swine. However, that you may not be insensibly drawn into that beastly custom of even sober drinking and sipping, as the sots call it, I advise you to be of no club whatsoever.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Keep your hands clean and pure from the infamous vice of corruption, a vice so infamous that it degrades even the other vices thatmay accompany it. Accept no present whatever; let your character in that respect be transparent and without the least speck, for as avarice is the vilest and dirtiest vice in private, corruption is so in public life.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A certain degree of fear produces the same effects as rashness.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

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
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
I do not think that a Physician should be admitted into the College till he could bring proofs of his having cured, in his own person, at least four incurable distempers.

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
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