“The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man’s general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. A man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown, would be reckoned generous; so that the difference of those two opposite characters, turns upon one shilling.”

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

15 January 1753
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 Chesterfield65

British statesman and man of letters 1694–1773

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Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield65

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