William Shenstone Quotes

90 Sourced Quotes

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

William Shenstone
A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money.

William Shenstone
Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are shewing you the grounds of it.

William Shenstone
The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. Then the warmth of friendship, and the intelligence received, most forcibly cooperate.

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

William Shenstone
A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.

William Shenstone
Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.

William Shenstone
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.

William Shenstone
There is a certain flimsiness of poetry which seems expedient in a song.

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

William Shenstone
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.

William Shenstone
Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.

William Shenstone
Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.

William Shenstone
Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.

William Shenstone
There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve if the world were honest; yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.

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
Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good sense than we find assurance; and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright stupidity.

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

William Shenstone
The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

William Shenstone
The making presents to a lady one addresses is like throwing armor into an enemy's camp, with a resolution to recover it.

William Shenstone
In designing a house and gardens, it is happy when there is an opportunity of maintaining a subordination of parts; the house so luckily place as to exhibit a view of the whole design. I have sometimes thought that there was room for it to resemble a epic or dramatic poem.

William Shenstone
Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.

William Shenstone
Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.

William Shenstone
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.

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
It seems idle to rail at ambition merely because it is a boundless passion; or rather is not this circumstance an argument in its favor? If one would be employed or amused through life, should we not make choice of a passion that will keep one long in play?

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

William Shenstone
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.

William Shenstone
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.

William Shenstone
Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior.

William Shenstone