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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Oftentimes
Thoughts
Second
Worst

More quotes by William Shenstone

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A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.
William Shenstone
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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.
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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
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The love of popularity seems little else than the love of being beloved and is only blamable when a person aims at the affections of a people by means in appearance honest, but in their end pernicious and destructive.
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A statue in a garden is to be considered as one part of a scene or landscape.
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Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone entangled in it.
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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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Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.
William Shenstone
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Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.
William Shenstone
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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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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.
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Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.
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The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.
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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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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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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
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Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone
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Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone