Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes
-
Dispatch is the soul of business.
-
Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.
-
You had better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily. Manner is all, in everything: it is by manner only that you can please, and consequently rise. All your Greek will never advance you from secretary to envoy, or from envoy to ambassador; but your address, your manner, your air, if good, very probably may.
-
Sacrifice to the Graces.
-
There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.
-
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
-
The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; 'they will both fall into the ditch.'
-
People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.
-
It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth.
-
Cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay, And calm with your joys gently glide thro' the day. The dews of the evening most carefully shun - Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.
-
I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.
-
He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.
-
Then in chat, or at play, with a dance, or a song, Let the night, like the day, pass with pleasure along. All cares, but of love, banish far from your mind; And those you may end, when you please to be kind.
-
Mark in the meadows the ruin of Time; Take the hint, and let life be improv'd in its prime.
-
An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
-
Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.
-
Style is the dress of thoughts.
-
In short, let it be your maxim through life, to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the informations of others.
-
Take the tone of the company you are in.
-
Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics.
-
I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.
-
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value.
-
It is a great advantage for any man to be able to talk or hear, neither ignorantly nor absurdly, upon any subject; for I have known people, who have not said one word, hear ignorantly and absurdly; it has appeared by their inattentive and unmeaning faces.
-
I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh.