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

• It's a remarkable pace of which things change and adapt, and it's hard for us to keep up with as a species.

  

  Charlie Brooker
  • Up

• Haven't you felt a peculiar sort of worry about the chair in your living room that no one sits in?

  

  Nicholson Baker
  • Worry

• When once it is no longer possible to understand how a man gives his life for his country--and the time will come--then all is over with that faith also, and the idea of the Fatherland is dead; and then, perhaps, we shall be envied, as we envy the saints their inward and irresistible strength.

  

  Ernst Junger
  • Faith
  • Dead
  • Saints

• The youth of the ANC, ever since 1944 when it was established, has been very vocal. It has made suggestions on things so that, at times, old people said, 'What are you doing?' That is its nature. Alliance partners, they have always raised issues. In fact, that is what brings vibrancy in the alliance. People misread that as huge fights.

  

  Jacob Zuma
  • People
  • Nature

• I believe that the first 8 years are most important and the time in a child's life when parents must be absolutely and completely present.

  

  Dirk Benedict
  • Life
  • Time
  • Believe

• 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