William Shenstone Quotes

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.

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.

Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.

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

Men are sometimes accused of pride, merely because their accusers would be proud themselves were they in their places.

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

To thee, fair Freedom! I retire From flattery, cards, and dice, and din: Nor art thou found in mansions higher Than the low cot, or humble inn.

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

Nothing is sure in London, except expense.

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

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.