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...
writing may speech
Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater.
writing men giving
Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read.
believe passion writing
Whatever poets may write, or fools believe, of rural innocence and truth, and of the perfidy of courts, this is most undoubtedly true,--that shepherds and ministers are both men; their natures and passions the same, the modes of them only different.
creativity writing mind
To write anything tolerable, the mind must be in a natural, proper disposition; provocatives, in that case, as well as in another,will only produce miserable, abortive performances.
writing order despair
Deafness produces bizarre effects, reversing the natural order of things; the interchange of letters is the conversation of the deaf, and the only link with society. I would be in despair, for instance, over seeing you speak, but, instead, I am only too happy to hear you write.
drinking writing gentleman
I can hardly bring myself to caution you against drinking, because I am persuaded that I am writing to a rational creature, a gentleman, and not to a swine. However, that you may not be insensibly drawn into that beastly custom of even sober drinking and sipping, as the sots call it, I advise you to be of no club whatsoever.
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.