William Shenstone Quotes
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In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.
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A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happen to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.
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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.
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
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The difference there is betwixt honor and honesty seems to be chiefly the motive; the mere honest man does that from duty which the man of honor does for the sake of character.
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The most reserved of men, that will not exchange two syllables together in an English coffee-house, should they meet at Ispahan, would drink sherbet and eat a mess of rice together.
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However, I think a plain space near the eye gives it a kind of liberty it loves; and then the picture, whether you choose the grand or beautiful, should be held up at its proper distance. Variety is the principal ingredient in beauty; and simplicity is essential to grandeur.
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The lines of poetry, the period of prose, and even the texts of Scripture most frequently recollected and quoted, are those which are felt to be preeminently musical.
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Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.
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The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
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I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
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The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.
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Thanks, oftenest obtrusive.
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Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice; whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.
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Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
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The works of a person that begin immediately to decay, while those of him who plants begin directly to improve. In this, planting promises a more lasting pleasure than building; which, were it to remain in equal perfection, would at best begin to moulder and want repairs in imagination. Now trees have a circumstance that suits our taste, and that is annual variety.
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When self-interest inclines a man to print, he should consider that the purchaser expects a pennyworth for his penny, and has reason to asperse his honesty if he finds himself deceived.
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Nothing is sure in London, except expense.
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A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.
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Persons who discover a flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications.
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Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.
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Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them.