Dispatch is the soul of business.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), was a British statesman and celebrated letter-writer whose posthumously published letters to his son offered practical instruction in manners, ambition, and worldly success. The maxim “Dispatch is the soul of business” reflects Chesterfield’s recurring emphasis on punctuality, prompt decision-making, and the disciplined use of time—virtues he treated as essential to public life and advancement in court and politics. The line is widely attributed to him in later collections of Chesterfield’s sayings and in quotation anthologies, though it is often detached from a clearly cited letter or dated occasion.

The aphorism argues that speed and decisiveness—“dispatch,” meaning prompt execution—are what give business its vitality. Chesterfield is not praising haste for its own sake, but the habit of acting efficiently: answering correspondence, making decisions, and completing tasks without procrastination. In his broader moral and social program, such promptness signals self-command and reliability, qualities that build trust and enable influence. The phrase also implies a competitive reality: opportunities are time-sensitive, and delay can be as damaging as error. As a compact rule of conduct, it elevates time-management from a mere tactic to the animating principle of effective work.