William Shenstone - Essays On Men And Manners

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

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

William Shenstone
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.

William Shenstone
In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends.

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

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

William Shenstone
The lowest people are generally the first to find fault with show or equipage; especially that of a person lately emerged from his obscurity. They never once consider that he is breaking the ice for themselves.

William Shenstone
A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happens to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.

William Shenstone
The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.

William Shenstone
Prudent men should lock up their motives, giving only their intimates a key.

William Shenstone
A poet hurts himself by writing prose; as a racehorse hurts his motions by condescending to draw in a team.

William Shenstone
A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.

William Shenstone
Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.

William Shenstone
Every single instance of a friend's insincerity increases our dependence on the efficacy of money.

William Shenstone
There seem near as many people that want passion as want reason.

William Shenstone