Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes
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Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.
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Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
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Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct-never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.
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The characteristic of a well-bred man is, to converse with his inferiors without insolence, and with his superiors with respect and with ease.
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Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.
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The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so.
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Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.
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I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual.
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I assisted at the birth of that most significant word 'flirtation,' which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world.
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Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known.
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A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.
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The chapter of knowledge is a very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one.
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In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.
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I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.
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The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
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There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest; but there is seldom one in which a man should tell all. Great skill is necessary to know how far to go, and where to stop.
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Unlike my subject will I frame my song, It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.
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Marriage is the cure of love, and friendship the cure of marriage.
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Every woman is infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery, and every man by one sort or other.
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The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.
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Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in.
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Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company.
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I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used to say, 'Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves.'
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Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.