Quotation by Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, 4th Earl

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Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, 4th Earl (261)

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(first published 1774)(1774)Characters of Chesterfield, 1773, repr. Augustan Reprint Society nos. 259-260, p. 4, University of California, Los Angeles (1990)Characters of Chesterfield, 1778, repr. Augustan Reprint Society, nos. 259-260, p. 10, University of California, Los Angeles (1990)Characters of Chesterfield, 1778, repr. Augustan Reprint Society, nos. 259-260, p. 14, University of California, Los Angeles (1990)

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love (22) faith (12) truth (12) God (9) life (8) thinking (8) thoughtful (8) character (7) self (7) evil (6)

We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.

Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, 4th Earl

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773), British statesman, man of letters. letter, Dec. 19, 1749, Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl, Earl of Chesterfield, to his Son, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl, Esq, 5th ed., vol. II, p. 297, London (1774).

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