William Shenstone Quotes
-
A large, branching, aged oak is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects.
-
There are no persons more solicitous about the preservation of rank than those who have no rank at all. Observe the humors of a country christening, and you will find no court in Christendom so ceremonious as the quality of Brentford.
-
Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.
-
A wound in the friendship of young persons, as in the bark of young trees, may be so grown over as to leave no scar. The case is very different in regard to old persons and old timber. The reason of this may be accountable from the decline of the social passions, and the prevalence of spleen, suspicion, and rancor towards the latter part of life.
-
Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
-
Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
-
There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.
-
Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.
-
Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone entangled in it.
-
To one who said, "I do not believe that there is an honest man in the world," another replied, "It is impossible that any one man should know all the world, but quite possible that one may know himself."
-
When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things.
-
Those who are incapable of shining out by dress would do well to consider that the contrast between them and their clothes turns out much to their disadvantage.
-
A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
-
It seems with wit and good-nature, Utrum horum mavis accipe. Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
-
I am thankful that my name in obnoxious to no pun.
-
We may daily discover crowds acquire sufficient wealth to buy gentility, but very few that possess the virtues which ennoble human nature, and (in the best sense of the word) constitute a gentleman.
-
The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.
-
The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
-
A fool and his words are soon parted.
-
Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use; or, if sterling, may require good management to make it serve the purposes of sense or happiness.
-
Persons are oftentimes misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty.
-
A rich dress adds but little to the beauty of a person. It may possibly create a deference, but that is rather an enemy to love.
-
Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives those who labor under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person in their favor.
-
Theirs is the present who can praise the past.