“Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latter deserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious.”

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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

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Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 65

British statesman and man of letters 1694–1773

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