Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

You understand people better if you look at them-no matter how old or impressive or important they may be-as if they were children. For most men never mature; they simply grow taller.

It is not always people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.

At present we educate people only up to the point where they can earn a living and marry; then education ceases altogether, as though a complete mental outfit had been acquired. ... Vast numbers of men and women thus spend their entire lives in complete ignorance of the most important things.

Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man IS contributes more to his happiness than what he HAS.

Education must be a lifelong pursuit. The person who doesn't read is not better off than the person who can't.

Anyone who stops learning is old — whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable — regardless of physical capacity.

The game is to keep learning, and I don't think people are going to keep learning who don't like the learning process.

My life - my personality, my habits, even my speech - is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind

The superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy.

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.

Herein lies the real value of education. Advanced education may or may not make men and women more efficient; but it enriches personality, increases the wealth of the mind, and hence brings happiness.

Sometimes, God uses difficult people, like sandpaper, to rub the rough edges off us.

Education is what allows you to stand out

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage, and determination.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

It is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it.

Knowledge makes people special. Knowledge enriches life itself.

Some people are faster than others; I'm just figuring it out later, that's all. I'm getting smart too late and old too soon.

I read for growth, firmly believing that what you are today and what you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.

The ideal of character always runs beyond the attainment.

Education is a process by which the individual is developed into something better than he would have been without it. ... The very though seems in a way the height of presumption. For one thing, it involves the premise that some human beings can be better than others.

A commitment to lifelong learning is a natural expression of the practice of living consciously.

I have realized that you can close yourself off to life if you put walls up, but it's a difficult thing ... You can't see over, people can't see in, and you also can't see out. So I've gotten quite comfortable with just being unafraid. I keep saying the same thing: it's not about being fearless but really just embracing the fears and using them.

I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.