Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield: Quotes about people

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield was British statesman and man of letters. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield: 130 quotes3 likes

“It is a great advantage for any man to be able to talk or hear, neither ignorantly nor absurdly, upon any subject; for I have known people, who have not said one word, hear ignorantly and absurdly; it has appeared by their inattentive and unmeaning faces.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

11 May 1752
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

25 December 1753
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

19 November 1745
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

15 January 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

8 May 1750
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“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 pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

22 February 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

10 August 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

22 May 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)