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...
experience wonder admire
Everything is worth seeing once, and the more one sees the less one either wonders or admires.
elegance exalted refined
Elegance of manner is the outgrowth of refined and exalted sense.
insult-to-injury people forgiving
There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
liars lying believe
One man affirms that he has rode post a hundred miles in six hours; probably it is a lie; but supposing it to be true, what then? Why, he is a very good post-boy; that is all. Another asserts, and probably not without oaths, that he has drunk six or eight bottles of wine at a sitting; out of charity I will believe him a liar; for if I do not, I must think him a beast.
manners ceremony
Ceremonies are the outworks of manners.
cottages manners court
Cottages have them (falsehood and dissimulation) as well as courts, only with worse manners.
resentment forgotten sometimes
It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former is never forgiven, but the later is sometimes forgotten.
confidence diffidence
We are as often duped by diffidence as by confidence.
dignity breeding ill
Good-breeding carries along with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill-breeding invites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid.
friendship connections degrees
The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections, friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them.
friendship enmity strange
In your friendships and in your enmities let your confidence and your hostilities have certain bounds; make not the former dangerous, nor the latter irreconcilable. There are strange vicissitudes in business.
account admitted ask company considered dances deep drink esteem exclude great ideas invite joking merit merits plays respected sake sings sought whoever
Whoever is admitted or sought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and manners, is never respected there, but only made use of. We will have such-a-one, for he sings prettily; we will invite such-a-one to a ball, for he dances well; we will have such-a-one at supper, for he is always joking and laughing; we will ask another because he plays deep at all games, or because he can drink a great deal. These are all vilifying distinctions, mortifying preferences, and exclude all ideas of esteem and regard. Whoever is had (as it is called) in company for the sake of any one thing singly, is singly that thing, and will never be considered in any other light; consequently never respected, let his merits be what they will.
apt men secrets trusted vanity
Women, and young men, are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been trusted
asked learning merely proclaim pull watch wear
Wear your learning like a watch and do not pull it out merely to show you have it. If you are asked for the time, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly unasked.