William Shenstone Quotes
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Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.
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Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.
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Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.
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Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior.
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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.
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A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
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In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends.
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I trimmed my lamp, consumed the midnight oil.
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It is true there is nothing displays a genius, I mean a quickness of genius, more than a dispute; as two diamonds, encountering, contribute to each other's luster. But perhaps the odds is much against the man of taste in this particular.
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A court of heraldry sprung up to supply the place of crusade exploits, to grant imaginary shields and trophies to families that never wore real armor, and it is but of late that it has been discovered to have no real jurisdiction.
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Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.
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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
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Every single instance of a friend's insincerity increases our dependence on the efficacy of money.
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The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. Then the warmth of friendship, and the intelligence received, most forcibly cooperate.
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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.
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The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.
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Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few.
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Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.
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Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.
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Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases.
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A statue in a garden is to be considered as one part of a scene or landscape.
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A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.
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To thee, fair Freedom! I retire From flattery, cards, and dice, and din: Nor art thou found in mansions higher Than the low cot, or humble inn.
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There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.