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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index C > The Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

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The Earl of Chesterfield
(22 Sep 1694 - 24 Mar 1773)

English diplomat, essayist and wit was an English statesman known for his oratory skills. His wit and literary skills, are preserved in his now famous series of more than 400 letters written to his illegitimate son, Philip, and his godson.

Science Quotes by The Earl of Chesterfield (3 quotes)

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.
— The Earl of Chesterfield
As given in Catherine Sinclair (ed.), The Kaleidoscope of Anecdotes and Aphorisms (1851), 93. More recently quoted as “A weak mind with no common sense magnifies trifling things and cannot receive great ones,” in Pano George Karkanis, Thoughts for Meaningful Life (2008), 96. Also seen with “telescope” instead of “microscope” in Richard Zera, Business Wit & Wisdom (2005), 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Great (1610)  |  Magnify (4)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Receive (117)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trifle (18)  |  Weak (73)

Common sense, (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.
— The Earl of Chesterfield
From Letter (27 Sep 1748, O.S.) to his son, collected in Letters Written by Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to his son, Philip Stanhope (1777), Vol. 2, 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Best (467)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Counsel (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Sense (785)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Uncommon (14)  |  Will (2350)

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
— The Earl of Chesterfield
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Delay (21)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Know (1538)  |  Moment (260)  |  Never (1089)  |  Put Off (2)  |  Seize (18)  |  Snatch (14)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  True (239)  |  Value (393)



Quotes by others about The Earl of Chesterfield (1)

Genius itself has been analyzed by the shrewdest observers into a higher capacity of attention. “Genius,” says Helvetius … “is nothing but a continued attention,” (une attention suivie). “Genius,” says Buffon, “is only a protracted patience,” (une longue patience). “In the exact sciences, at least,” says Cuvier, “it is the patience of a sound intellect, when invincible, which truly constitutes genius.” And Chesterfield has also observed, that “the power of applying an attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of a superior genius.”
In Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860), Vol. 1, 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (37)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Genius (301)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Invincible (6)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Observed (149)  |  Patience (58)  |  Power (771)  |  Protracted (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Steady (45)  |  Superior (88)  |  Truly (118)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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