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

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), 9 March 1748

About Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

1694 – 1773

English statesman and man of letters, author of "Letters to His Son".

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it.”

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”

“Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“If a man could half his wishes he would double his troubles.”

“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”

“Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”