William Shenstone

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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
Collection: Enemy
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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.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Money
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May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Heart
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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.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Honesty
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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
Collection: Order
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Reserve is no more essentially connected with understanding than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Wine
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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.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Hate
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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.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Respect
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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
Collection: Animal
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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
Collection: Pain
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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
Collection: Years
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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Essence
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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.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Imagination
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Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Character
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Thanks, oftenest obtrusive.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Thankfulness
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So sweetly she bade me adieu, I thought that she bade me return.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Goodbye
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Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
- William Shenstone
Collection: Taste