Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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Quotes to Explore

• I think we Americans tend to put too high a price on unanimity, as if there were something dangerous and illegitimate about honest differences of opinion honestly expressed by honest men.

  

  J. William Fulbright
  • Men
  • High
  • Think

• Well, we like to let down our hair and pep it up at the dances, but we keep it slower when we broadcast. We have to please everybody, and that softer music appeals to the larger amount of people. It's like eating too much cake. You have to have your steak too.

  

  Vaughn Monroe
  • People
  • Up
  • Music

• My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn.

  

  Olympia Snowe
  • People
  • Government
  • Turn

• If we pulled out of Iraq tomorrow, Islamic jihadism is on the rise. And they continue, as we see in Lebanon, to seek to destroy the State of Israel and seek to drive America back and bring us to our knees. We must stand tall and straight.

  

  Zach Wamp
  • America
  • Tomorrow
  • Stand

• Desire is the very essence of man.

  

  Baruch Spinoza
  • Man
  • Desire
  • Very

• The way I'm portrayed on the Internet is partly my doing, but it's partly the people that are presenting it so, you know, people come to know this strange version of a human. It can be pretty weird because people think I'm digging through dumpsters and smell like crap all the time.

  

  Mac DeMarco
  • People
  • Time
  • Pretty

• So many songs are just a wink to the audience, but people take them seriously. 'My Humps?' C'mon!

  

  Fergie The Black Eyed Peas
  • People
  • Audience
  • Songs

• Putting on my legs is like putting on my shoes. I understand that's how some people might think differently, but I hope that in London, their perceptions open up.

  

  Oscar Pistorius
  • People
  • Up
  • Hope

• I think that you can love people without it being the great love.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • People
  • Great
  • Love

• I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn't exist without the performance-art element.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • People
  • Work
  • Music

• We have so many rich people in Switzerland. They should take more responsibility for the general public. There is almost no tradition of philanthropy here anymore, unlike in the U.S.

  

  Hansjorg Wyss
  • People
  • Responsibility

• What if you could radically alter the way stories get told? What if the way people wanted to consume content actually changed what you could make?

  

  Ted Sarandos
  • People
  • You
  • Content

• You have to understand that while I pre-plot the meta story of a given book, I often have no idea of what will happen on the next page, let alone the next chapter. That's what makes it fun for me; I write the books the same way many people read them.

  

  R. A. Salvatore
  • People
  • Book
  • Fun

• I'm not confident around compliments or being celebrated, and I'm not comfortable with the thought of envy, which some people thrive on.

  

  Rachel Weisz
  • People
  • Thought
  • Envy

• I focus on projects I am passionate about and only work with people I respect. Without these supportive teams, partners and clients, I could never work on so many things. I am fortunate that they see the value in the multiplicity of my work and how it all comes together in a kind of virtuous cycle.

  

  Imran Amed
  • People
  • Work
  • Together

• Some musical directors have more chutzpah. They pick up the phone and talk people into giving. I prefer to call and say 'thank you' after the money has been contributed.

  

  Zubin Mehta
  • People
  • Up
  • Money

• A show hosted by a black had never been accepted, so the first time that knob's turned on, people are judging against all they have ever been taught. I may have been the first black in the house.

  

  Flip Wilson
  • People
  • Time
  • May

• Sometimes it is claimed by those who argue that race is just a social construct that the human genome project shows that because people share roughly 99% of their genes in common, that there are no races. This is silly.

  

  J. Philippe Rushton
  • People
  • Sometimes
  • Silly

• At midnight they can come into your room and take you away. They can put a black hood on you, take you to a secret place and interrogate you, trying to stop what you’re doing. They threaten people, your family, saying: 'Your children won’t find jobs.'

  

  Ai Weiwei
  • People
  • Children
  • Trying

• The problem with being an actor is that you have to be reactive to what other people want.

  

  Marisa Coughlan
  • People

• Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Want
  • You
  • Old

• Night raids are only the first step in the American detention process in Afghanistan. Suspects are usually sent to one of a series of prisons on U.S. military bases around the country. There are officially nine such jails, called Field Detention Sites in military parlance.

  

  Anand Gopal
  • Country
  • American
  • Night

• Most stand-ups, once they have done it, think of it as their default job. I'm pretty sure Jon Stewart still feels that way now. You are a stand-up first; other things come and go.

  

  John Oliver
  • Up
  • Done
  • Job

• Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.

  

  Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
  • People
  • Opinion