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...
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There is a sort of veteran woman of condition, who, having lived always in the grand monde, and having possibly had some gallantries, together with the experience of five and twenty or thirty years, form a young fellow better than all the rules that can be given him. Wherever you go, make some of those women your friends; which a very little matter will do. Ask their advice, tell them your doubts or difficulties as to your behavior; but take great care not to drop one word of their experience; for experience implies age, and the suspicion of age, no woman, let her be ever so old, ever forgives.
dirt dress presented words
Words are the dress of thoughts; which should no more be presented in rags, tatters, and dirt than your person should
abound anger feeling forgiveness forgiving incapable minds pleasure vicious
Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of forgiving their enemies.
ancestry breeding brute good scholar soldier
The scholar without good breeding is a nitpicker; the philosopher a cynic; the soldier a brute and everyone else disagreeable.
respectable ifs
You must be respectable, if you will be respected.
manners ceremony
Ceremonies are the outworks of 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.