Quote

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?

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Make
Circumstances
Employed
Would
Passion
Idle
Life
Choices
Favor
Rather
Favors
Keep
Ambition
Rail
Seems
Argument
Amused
Play
Merely
Boundless
Long
Choice
Circumstance

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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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Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases.
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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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In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends.
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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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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
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The making presents to a lady one addresses is like throwing armor into an enemy's camp, with a resolution to recover it.
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A court of heraldry sprung up to supply the place of crusade exploits, to grant imaginary shields and trophies to families that never wore real armor, and it is but of late that it has been discovered to have no real jurisdiction.
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Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.
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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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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
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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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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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The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
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There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve if the world were honest yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.
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There is a certain flimsiness of poetry which seems expedient in a song.
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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.
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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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Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.
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