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Wit is the refractory pupil of judgment.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Wit
Judgment
Refractory
Pupil
Pupils

More quotes by William Shenstone

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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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Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.
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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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Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.
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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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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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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
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My banks they are furnish'd with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
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Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.
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The most reserved of men, that will not exchange two syllables together in an English coffee-house, should they meet at Ispahan, would drink sherbet and eat a mess of rice together.
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Harmony of period and melody of style have greater weight than is generally imagined in the judgment we pass upon writing and writers. As a proof of this, let us reflect what texts of scripture, what lines in poetry, or what periods we most remember and quote, either in verse or prose, and we shall find them to be only musical ones.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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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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A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.
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A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
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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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Nothing is certain in London but expense.
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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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Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.
William Shenstone
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In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame.
William Shenstone