„Když můžeš, buď moudřejší než ostatní lidé, ale neříkej jim to.“
Varianta: Buď moudřejší než ostatní, můžeš-li, ale neříkej jim to!
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4. hrabě z Chesterfieldu byl britský státník, diplomat a spisovatel ze šlechtického rodu Stanhope. Zastával hodnosti u dvora a uplatnil se jako vyslanec v několika zemích. V politice patřil k whigům, byl ministrem zahraničí a místokrálem v Irsku. Byl rytířem Podvazkového řádu a za manželku měl nelegitimní dceru Jiřího I. Melusinu de Schulenberg, hraběnku z Walsinghamu. Mimo jiné se zasloužil o zavedení gregoriánského kalendáře ve Velké Británii. Wikipedia

„Když můžeš, buď moudřejší než ostatní lidé, ale neříkej jim to.“
Varianta: Buď moudřejší než ostatní, můžeš-li, ale neříkej jim to!
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
2 October 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
6 February 1752
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Unlike my subject will I frame my song,
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Epigram on ("Long") Sir Thomas Robinson
“Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
8 May 1750
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
22 February 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Generally attributed to Lord Chesterfield, the first publication of this yet located is in a section of proverbs called "Diamond Dust" in Eliza Cook's Journal, No. 98 (15 March 1851), with the first attribution to Chesterfield as yet located in: Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862) edited by Henry Southgate
Disputed
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
22 February 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
4 October 1746
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
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)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
6 December 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
1751
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
9 October 1746
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
10 August 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
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)
“He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Character of Bolingbroke; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
18 March 1751
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
5 February 1750
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Character of Pulteney; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Take the tone of the company you are in.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
16 October 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
22 May 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
26 March 1754
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
16 March 1759
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
9 March 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
6 February 1752
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
1 November 1750
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
24 November 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
14 December 1756
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
21 September 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
9 October 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Varianta: I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.