Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.

I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master.

Sometimes it helps to scold yourself, to give yourself advice.

I see and praise what is better, but follow what is worse.

This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.

I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man.

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

For me, I'm always hard on myself no matter what, so that's always a thing I have to deal with on a daily basis.

I'm highly critical of myself. There's not something someone else might say that makes me feel I need to be motivated in a different way. I'm a self-motivated guy.

I'm hard on myself, like, 'Oh, why did you say that?' But it helps me grow.

I sometimes give myself excellent advice. Occasionally, I even listen to it.

I believe in discipline, so I'm not the right person to cry about weakness and things like this, but maybe I'm not human.

The only one who can beat me is me.

I'm a tough critic on myself.

Most of us actually stifle enough good impulses during the course of a day to change the current of our lives.

Well, any time you do anything good, it's man versus himself, right? That's the art, the challenge.

I'm extremely self-critical. Although I try not to be ridiculous about it, wearing horsehair shirts and all that. It's a private exercise I don't necessarily share with other people.

The selfish thing about an athlete is you always look at the side of things where you say I could've done that better.

Happiness is dependent on self-discipline. We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. It is much easier to do battle with society and with others than to fight our own nature.

There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

I like pushing myself, and usually if I'm not good at something I just won't do it because I'm a perfectionist.

I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.

My mind is always going. I'm always thinking what I need to do, what I haven't done, what I did do, what I didn't do as well as I could - I'm relentless that way with myself.

Most of us are at war with ourselves, are our own worst enemies. We expect a great deal of ourselves, yet we do not put ourselves in a condition to achieve great things. We are either too indulgent to our bodies, or we are not indulgent enough.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.