Top 88 Quotes & Sayings by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield - Page 2

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

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

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

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.

Whoever incites anger has a strong insurance against indifference.

In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.

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

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.

I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive.

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

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

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.

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.

Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.

In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.

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.

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.

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.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.

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

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

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