Lord Chesterfield
Lord Chesterfield
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield KG PCwas a British statesman, and a man of letters, and wit. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he subsequently embarked on the Grand Tour of the Continent, to complete his education as a nobleman, by exposure to the cultural legacies of Classical antiquity and...
friendship trust love-you
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.
writing men giving
Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read.
health pay being-sick
Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.
judging age merit
Speak of the moderns without contempt and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their age
wise time ignorance
Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.
sad depressing inspiration
Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.
country arbitrary steps
Arbitrary power has seldom... been introduced in any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step.
dark sides argument
Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.
sight people favors
It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.
different human-nature humans
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different.
work society willing
The more one works, the more willing one is to work.
loss carpe-diem moments
The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable.
character gambling play
Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.
turns justify maxims
Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.