Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield quotes

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, was a British statesman, diplomat, and man of letters. His famous "Letters to His Son" are celebrated for their wit and insight into manners, education, and etiquette. He became renowned for his eloquence, diplomacy, and influence on 18th-century society. Here are 176 of his quotes:

Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so. (Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield)
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Style is the dress of thoughts. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
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. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Take the tone of the company you are in. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one. (Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield)
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
People hate who makes you feel one's inferiority. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of 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 the year, if you will do two things at a time. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Do as you would be done by is the surest method of pleasing. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces for every woman who is not absolutely ugly, thinks herself handsome. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all. (Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield)
Women are much more like each other than men they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love these are their universal characteristics. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind they will both fall into the ditch. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years but we don't choose to have it known. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield