Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

… to escape censure a man must pass his whole life without saying or doing one ill or foolish thing.

There is a particular set of values commonly associated with being professional. Experience, expertise, trustworthiness, wisdom, and good judgement are all attributes aspired to by senior professional people, be they doctors, engineers, lawyers, civil servants, or the clergy.

You can't start anything and not trust nobody. You trust everybody until they do something wrong.

Character is the starting point from which we go on. When I say a man has character, I mean that when you go to that man and say, 'What are the facts in this case?' he will tell you the truth, justly, truly, and wisely as he knows, with the minimum of exhibitionism and the maximum of devotion to the common cause.

It's never been difficult for me to say no. I have never given excuses like I don't have dates. I have never over-quoted to avoid a project. I simply say that while the script might be good, I can't connect with it. My strategy is that while I wouldn't want anyone to waste my time, I shouldn't be doing that, either, with others.

Trust, but verify.

See it all. See it fairly. Be truthful, be sensible and be careful with language. When nothing depends on man, everything depends on him.

All truth is not to be told at all times.

I've learned people are watching, so don't do nothing stupid.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

You should not do an autobiography if you want to tell the truth. There are a lot of things I know about people. If I can't say something good about a person, I don't want to say anything. And since I don't want to say anything bad, I won't write a book.

I'm not saying Obama is right on everything. Of course not. He may be wrong on a number of things. But what I do know is that he behaves like a very, very sane man almost all the time.

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.

The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.'

I need to behave in a way that will cause people to take me seriously.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more, as I grown older.

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

The chief prerequisite for a escort is to have a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

I tell the truth, and it has gotten me into a lot of trouble. My dad used to say to me, 'If you tell the truth all day long, you will end up in jail.'