William Shenstone Quotes
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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.
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Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
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In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame.
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
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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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Harmony of period and melody of style have greater weight than is generally imagined in the judgment we pass upon writing and writers. As a proof of this, let us reflect what texts of scripture, what lines in poetry, or what periods we most remember and quote, either in verse or prose, and we shall find them to be only musical ones.
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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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The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
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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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I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
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Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
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Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.
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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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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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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 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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Persons who discover a flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications.
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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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Love can be founded upon Nature only.
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Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.