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Quote#Beauty

Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly,…

Quote byPhilip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield · 1694–1773

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), 5 September 1748.

English (original)

Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces; for every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome.

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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