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...
ambition pride your-side
If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.
hate ambition passion
There is nothing so necessary, but at the same time there is nothing more difficult (I know it by experience) for you young fellows, than to know how to behave yourselves prudently towards those whom you do not like. Your passions are warm, and your heads are light; you hate all those who oppose your views, either of ambition or love; and a rival, in either, is almost a synonymous term for any enemy.
activity constant strong
A constant smirk upon the face, and a whiffing activity of the body, are strong indications of futility.
british-statesman count learned learning people pocket pull seem time watch wear
Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.
care hours time-and-time-management
Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.
company tone
Take the tone of the company that you are in
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
attention contempt due inside man proper relation
Due attention to the inside of books, and due contempt for the outside, is the proper relation between a man of sense and his books.
almost man woman
Every man is to be had one way or another, and every woman almost any way
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.
advice seldom
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always want it the least.
literature moderns speak
Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
cannot great mind receive weak
A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones
forgiven forgiveness injury insult sooner
An injury is much sooner forgiven than an insult