Lord Chesterfield.....................

Philip Dormer Stanhope  (1694 – 1773) said, and wrote, some neat stuff.  He is better known today as the 4th Earl of Chesterfield.  His contemporaries were not necessarily enamored with him.  As Boswell is quoted as saying,  ‘“This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords!” And when his Letters to his natural son were published, he observed, that “they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master.”’  You can read more about him here.  A few of quotes from Chesterfield:

"Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.'

"I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.'

"In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool."


"The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; 'they will both fall into the ditch.'”

'The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet."

'Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison."

"There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time."

'The chapter of knowledge is a very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one.'

"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."

"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."