Philip Dormer Stanhope > Quotes

“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.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
― Lord Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1752

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Idleness is only the refuge of weak
minds, and the holiday of fools.”
― Philip Dormer Stanhope, Letters to His Son, 1746-47

“I recommend to you to take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of themselves. I am very sure, that many people lose two or three hours every day, by not taking care of the minutes.”
― Earl Of Chesterfield, Earl Of Chesterfield: Letters To His Son Part One

“Ridicule is the best test of truth.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”
― EARL OF CHESTERFIELD

“Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Advice is seldom welcome and those who need it the most like it the least.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Words are the dress of thoughts; which should no more be presented in rags, tatters, and dirt than your person should.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“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 they year, if you will do two things at a time.”
― Earl of Chesterfield

“Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”
― Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, 4th Earl

“You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp its seat, and rule in its stead.”
― Philip Dormer Stanhope

“Many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Listen to everything that is said, and see everything that is done. Observe the looks and countenances of those who speak, which is often a surer way of discovering the truth than from what they say. But then keep all those observations to yourself, for your own private use, and rarely communicate them to others. Observe, without being thought an observer, for otherwise people will be upon their guard before you.”
― Earl Of Chesterfield, Earl Of Chesterfield: Letters To His Son Part One

“People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority.”
― Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

“There are several short intervals during the day, between studies and pleasures: instead of sitting idle and yawning, in those intervals, take up any book, though ever so trifling a one, even down to a jest-book; it is still better than doing nothing.”
― Earl Of Chesterfield, Earl Of Chesterfield: Letters To His Son Part One

“Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him”
― Lord Chesterfield

“I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. Follow nature and not fashion: weigh the present enjoyment of your pleasures against the necessary consequences of them, and then let your own common sense determine your choice.”
― Earl of Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art ofBecoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman byChesterfield

“The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary.”
― Lord Chesterfield

“A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot, or does not, command and direct his attention to the present object, and, in some degree, banish for that time all other objects from his thoughts.”
― Earl of Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art ofBecoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman byChesterfield

“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.”
― Earl Of Chesterfield, Earl Of Chesterfield: Letters To His Son Part One

“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. ”
― Philip Dormer Stanhope

“Honest error is to be pitied not ridiculed.”
― Lord Chesterfield