William Shenstone Quotes

Theirs is the present who can praise the past.

A large, branching, aged oak is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects.

Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.

It happens a little unluckily that the persons who have the most infinite contempt of money are the same that have the strongest appetite for the pleasures it procures.

I trimmed my lamp, consumed the midnight oil.

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.

Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.

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.

Love can be founded upon Nature only.

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.

I am thankful that my name in obnoxious to no pun.

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.

Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it; and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.

Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever; fighting and lawsuits, bleeding,--at least, an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money; the former, of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation.

Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

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.

What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.

Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice; whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.

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.

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.

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.

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.

I hate a style, as I do a garden, that is wholly flat and regular; that slides along like an eel, and never rises to what one can call an inequality.

A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.

The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.

Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

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.

A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

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.

Fashion is a great restraint upon your persons of taste and fancy; who would otherwise in the most trifling instances be able to distinguish themselves from the vulgar.

Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.

Patience is the panacea; but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?

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.

A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.

My banks they are furnish'd with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep.

Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.

Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.

It seems with wit and good-nature, Utrum horum mavis accipe. Taste and good-nature are universally connected.

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.

A fool and his words are soon parted.

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.

May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune.

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.

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.