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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

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Hate
Flat
Writing
Flats
Never
Inequality
Like
Regular
Garden
Eels
Along
Slides
Style
Rises
Call
Wholly

More quotes by William Shenstone

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There is a certain flimsiness of poetry which seems expedient in a song.
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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.
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Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use or, if sterling, may require good management to make it serve the purposes of sense or happiness.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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The lines of poetry, the period of prose, and even the texts of Scripture most frequently recollected and quoted, are those which are felt to be preeminently musical.
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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.
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Glory relaxes often and debilitates the mind censure stimulates and contracts,--both to an extreme. Simple fame is, perhaps, the proper medium.
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Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.
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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.
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Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.
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The fund of sensible discourse is limited that of jest and badinerie is infinite.
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Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.
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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.
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However, I think a plain space near the eye gives it a kind of liberty it loves and then the picture, whether you choose the grand or beautiful, should be held up at its proper distance. Variety is the principal ingredient in beauty and simplicity is essential to grandeur.
William Shenstone
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There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day the reason is that people can commend it without envy.
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A plain narrative of any remarkable fact, emphatically related, has a more striking effect without the author's comment.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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The difference there is betwixt honor and honesty seems to be chiefly the motive the mere honest man does that from duty which the man of honor does for the sake of character.
William Shenstone
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A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
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Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
William Shenstone