"Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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15 January 1748

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope%2C_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfield