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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Gilded
Defence
Meaning
Fool
Honest
Sense
Nature
Good

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Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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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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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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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 liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
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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.
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Many persons, when exalted, assume an insolent humility, who behaved before with an insolent haughtiness.
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Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
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The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.
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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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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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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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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.
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It seems idle to rail at ambition merely because it is a boundless passion or rather is not this circumstance an argument in its favor? If one would be employed or amused through life, should we not make choice of a passion that will keep one long in play?
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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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The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
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Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.
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A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
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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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