Philip Stanhope Chesterfield citáty

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„Tanec je dnes pre mladého človeka nevyhnutný, preto sa ho dobre nauč, aby si pri tom smiešnom akte nebol smiešny. - Tí, ktorí bezhlavo cestujú z miesta na miesto a pozorujú len vzdialenosť od jedného k druhému a všímajú si len, ako sú ubytovaní a aký je hostinec v noci, vydali sa na cestu ako hlupáci a iste sa aj ako takí vrátia.“

„Ak môžeš, buď múdrejší než ostatní ľudia, ale nehovor im to.“

„Čo je vôbec hodné toho, aby to bolo vykonané, je hodné aj toho, aby to bolo vykonané poriadne.“

„Mladí ľudia majú sklon si myslieť, že sú múdri, ako si opití myslia, že sú triezvi.“

„Aby sa muž zapáčil žene buď veľmi peknej, alebo veľmi ošklivej, musí chváliť JEJ INTELIGENCIU, aby sa zapáčil ostatným, musí vychvaľovať ich krásu.“

„Výrazy, ktoré používame, keď popisujeme iných ľudí, obyčajne odhaľujú veľmi málo z nich, zato však veľa z nás.“

„Zrejmým dôsledkom ľahkomyseľného rozvode je ľahkomyseľné manželstvo. Ak sa budú ľudia môcť dať bezdôvodne rozviesť, bude sa im zdať tým ľahšie sa bezdôvodne spojiť.“

„Čo je hodné, aby sa vykonalo, je tiež hodné, aby sa vykonalo dobre.“

„Každú ženu možno spoľahlivo získať každým druhom zaliečania a každého muža tým alebo oným druhom.“

„Každý dobre využitý okamih nesie ohromné úroky.“

„Kto hovorí o svojich prednostiach, je smiešny, kto však o nich nevie, je hlúpy.“

„Nos svoju múdrosť podobne ako nosíš hodinky v malom vrecku, ale nepredvádzaj ju len zato, aby si ukázal, že ju máš.“

„Poznať hodnotu času znamená zmocniť sa ho a tešiť sa z každej jeho minúty.“

„Ženy sa navzájom podobajú omnoho viac, ako muži. V skutočnosti majú iba dve vášne - márnomyseľnosť a lásku, to sú ich všeobecné charakteristiky.“

“It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth.”

“Unlike my subject will I frame my song,
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.”

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

“Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.”

“A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.”

“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.”

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

“A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.”

“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.”

“The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so.”

“An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.”

“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.”

“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.”

“He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.”

“You had better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily. Manner is all, in everything: it is by manner only that you can please, and consequently rise. All your Greek will never advance you from secretary to envoy, or from envoy to ambassador; but your address, your manner, your air, if good, very probably may.”

“I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.”

“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.”

“Take the tone of the company you are in.”

“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.”

“Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct—never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.”

“In short, let it be your maxim through life, to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the informations of others.”

“In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.”

“Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.”

“Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”

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

“Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance.”

“I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.”

“Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.”

“I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.”