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...
mean vanity principles
To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.
money gold silver
Gold and silver are but merchandise, as well as cloth or linen; and that nation that buys the least, and sells the most, must always have the most money.
humility bait modesty
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
fall numbers people
Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.
knowledge men shining
Second-rate knowledge, and middling talents, carry a man farther at courts, and in the busy part of the world, than superior knowledge and shining parts.
wise time ignorance
Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.
life standards wells
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
respect mean numbers
In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.
men people looks
You must look into people, as well as at them.
dream strong kings
As kings are begotten and born like other men, it is to be presumed that they are of the human species; and perhaps, had they thesame education, they might prove like other men. But, flattered from their cradles, their hearts are corrupted, and their heads are turned, so that they seem to be a species by themselves.... Flattery cannot be too strong for them; drunk with it from their infancy, like old drinkers, they require dreams.
teacher giving shade
If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.
mean people religion
Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company; it should only be treated among a very few people of learning, for mutual instruction. It is too awful and respectable a subject to become a familiar one.
bad case receiver scandal thief
In the case of scandal as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief
brute cow mere pleasure reading sort
The mere brute pleasure of reading -the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.