Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.

Take the tone of the company you are in.

If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust.

Being pretty on the inside means you don’t hit your brother and you eat all your peas – that’s what my grandma taught me.

When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.

Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.

The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.

An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.

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.

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

It is always right to detect a fraud, and to perceive a folly; but it is very often wrong to expose either. A man of business should always have his eyes open, but must often seem to have them shut.

Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.

The mere brute pleasure of reading – the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

Remember, as long as you live, that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honor unwounded.

You must look into people as well as at them.

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.

The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

Whoever incites anger has a strong insurance against indifference.

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.

Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.

A young man, be his merit what it will, can never raise himself; but must, like the ivy round the oak, twine himself round some man of great power and interest.

Women are only children of a larger growth. A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

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 merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.

Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.

The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment.

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes.

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.

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always want it the least.

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

Gratitude is a burden upon our imperfect nature, and we are but too willing to ease ourselves of it, or at least to lighten it as much as we can.

Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.

In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody’s torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet.

Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, the steadiness of your resentment.

Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.

Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.