Reserve is no more essentially connected with understanding than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature. William Shenstone More Quotes by William Shenstone More Quotes From William Shenstone Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion. William Shenstone expensesfashiontaste Thanks, oftenest obtrusive. William Shenstone thanksthankfulness Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance. William Shenstone importanceactioncharacter A large, branching, aged oak is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects. William Shenstone inanimate-objectsobjectsoaks In every village marked with little spire, William Shenstone villagetreelittles Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches. William Shenstone virtueessencebears 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 prejudicepaingiving 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 stylecolorchoices 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. William Shenstone stylemusicalwriting There is a certain flimsiness of poetry which seems expedient in a song. William Shenstone certainseemssong Men of quality never appear more amiable than when their dress is plain. Their birth, rank, title and its appendages are at best indivious and as they do not need the assistance of dress, so, by their disclaiming the advantage of it, they make their superiority sit more easy. William Shenstone titlesqualitymen 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. William Shenstone clothesshiningdresses 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. William Shenstone fancyablefashion Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together. William Shenstone woodsfooltogether 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. William Shenstone passiontreefriendship When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things. William Shenstone trialsmatterway Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes. William Shenstone prizeeyehero I have been formerly so silly as to hope that every servant I had might be made a friend; I am now convinced that the nature of servitude generally bears a contrary tendency. People's characters are to be chiefly collected from their education and place in life; birth itself does but little. William Shenstone sillycharacterpeople 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 deferencegainssilence Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few. William Shenstone toilfoolwar
