Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) was an English statesman, diplomat, man of letters, and a much-admired wit of his time. Many of his leading contemporaries praised Chesterfield’s courteous manners, urbanity, and wit.
Stanhope wrote Lord Chesterfield’s Advice to his Son, on Men and Manners (1774,) a guide to manners and success, which essayist Samuel Johnson denounced as teaching “the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.”
Born in London, Lord Chesterfield was a Member of Parliament 1715–c.1723. In 1730, he was made Lord Steward of the household. Until then, as a Whig, he had supported Sir Robert Walpole; but being expelled from office for voting against an excise bill, he became one of Walpole’s harshest antagonists. Chesterfield joined the ministry of Thomas Pelham-Holles in 1744, became Irish Lord Lieutenant in 1745, and was one of the principal secretaries of state in 1746.
Lord Chesterfield is the acclaimed author of Maxims, the popular title for the collection of letters of advice he wrote to his illegitimate son, to help him overcome the handicap of his birth (only legitimate sons could inherit.) The letters, dating from 1736, were published in 1774 by Philip’s widow. Originally titled Lord Chesterfield’s Advice to his Son, on Men and Manners; or, a New system of Education in Which the Principles of Politeness, the Art of Acquiring a Knowledge of the World, with Every Instruction Necessary to Form a Man of Honour, Virtue, Taste and Fashion are Laid Down, the letters are the forerunner of a modern self-help book.
Friendly with Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, Voltaire, and Viscount Bolingbroke, Lord Chesterfield drew from Samuel Johnson a famous indignant letter. Besides the Letters to His Son, he also wrote Letters to his Godson and Successor (1890.) His Letters to Lord Huntingdon were published in 1923.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Earl of Chesterfield
Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Friendship
To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Vanity
Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever. It implies a discovery of weakness, which we are more careful to conceal than a crime. Many a man will confess his crimes to a friend; but I never knew a man that would tell his silly weaknesses to his most intimate one.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Forgiveness
Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Dress, Fashion, Affectation
Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way in the world; without them it is like a great rough diamond, very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but most prized when polished.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Manners
Men have various subjects in which they may excel, or at least would be thought to excel, and though they love to hear justice done to them where they know they excel, yet they are most and best flattered upon those points where they wish to excel and yet are doubtful whether they do or not.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Excellence
History is but a confused heap of facts.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: History, Historians
I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has heard me laugh.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Laughter
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not a closet.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Experience, Knowledge
Look in the face of the person to whom you are speaking if you wish to know his real sentiments, for he can command his words more easily than his countenance.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Face
How often have I seen the most solid merit and knowledge neglected, unwelcome, and even rejected, while flimsy parts, little knowledge, and less merit, introduced by the Graces, have been received, cherished, and admired!
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Manners
Real friendship is a slow grower and never thrives unless engrafted upon a stock of known and reciprocal merit.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Friendship
Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life; returns are equally expected from both; and people will no more advance their civility to a bear than their money to a bankrupt.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Manners
Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Vanity
Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Dance, Dancing
Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it; that is the right and true pride.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Associates
We read every day with astonishment, things which we see everyday without surprise.
—Earl of Chesterfield
A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Humor, Wit
I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. These virtue, honor, and knowledge alone can merit, alone can produce.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Virtue
A man who owes a little can clear it off in a little time, and, if he is prudent, he will: whereas a man, who, by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Debt
A man’s penmanship is an unfailing index of his character, moral and mental, and a criterion by which to judge his peculiarities of taste and sentiments.
—Earl of Chesterfield
I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself whatever he pleases, except a great poet.
—Earl of Chesterfield
It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and, therefore, one seldom does it all; whereas those who have a great deal of business, must (to use a vulgar expression) buckle to it; and then they always find time enough to do it in.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Busy, Productivity, Idleness, Work, Procrastination, Occupation, Time Management, Time
A letter shows the man it is written to as well as the man it is written by.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Letters
Let dull critics feed upon the carcases of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Compliments of congratulation are always kindly taken, and cost nothing but pen, ink, and paper. I consider them as draughts upon good breeding, where the exchange is always greatly in favor of the drawer.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Compliments
Silence and reserve suggest latent power. What some men think has more effect than what others say.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Silence, Thought
I have run the silly rounds of pleasure, and have done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and I appraise them at their real worth, which is in truth very low; those who have only seen their outside always overrate them, but I have been behind the scenes, I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which move the gaudy machines, and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decoration, to the astonishment and admiration of the ignorant audience. When I reflect on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry and bustle of pleasure in the world had any reality; but I look upon all that is passed as one of those romantic dreams which opium commonly occasions, and I do by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: World
The manner of speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings to judge.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Eloquence
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Francis Thompson English Poet
William Blackstone English Judge
Thomas Henry Huxley English Biologist
Edmund Spenser English Poet
E. V. Lucas English Author
Jane Austen English Novelist
Isaac Newton English Physicist
Jackie Collins English Romance Novelist
Philip James Bailey English Poet
Arthur Conan Doyle Scottish Writer