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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.
William Shenstone -
A fool and his words are soon parted.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone -
May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune.
William Shenstone -
Thanks, oftenest obtrusive.
William Shenstone -
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.
William Shenstone -
Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance; I mean where a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune.
William Shenstone -
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.
William Shenstone
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
William Shenstone -
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.
William Shenstone -
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.
William Shenstone -
Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
William Shenstone -
Nothing is sure in London, except expense.
William Shenstone -
Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone -
The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
William Shenstone -
Persons who discover a flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications.
William Shenstone -
The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.
William Shenstone -
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.
William Shenstone -
Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
William Shenstone
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I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
William Shenstone -
A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.
William Shenstone -
Glory relaxes often and debilitates the mind; censure stimulates and contracts,--both to an extreme. Simple fame is, perhaps, the proper medium.
William Shenstone -
Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.
William Shenstone