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Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Often
Latter
Opposite
Variety
Simplicity
Former
Opposites
Akin
Increase
Grandeur
Beauty
Diminish

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Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
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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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Men are sometimes accused of pride, merely because their accusers would be proud themselves were they in their places.
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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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Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.
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It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.
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Taste and good-nature are universally connected.
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We may daily discover crowds acquire sufficient wealth to buy gentility, but very few that possess the virtues which ennoble human nature, and (in the best sense of the word) constitute a gentleman.
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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.
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Misers, as death approaches, are heaping up a chest of reasons to stand in more awe of him.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
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I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
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Reserve is no more essentially connected with understanding than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature.
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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.
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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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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.
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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.
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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.
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The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. Then the warmth of friendship, and the intelligence received, most forcibly cooperate.
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