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Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Complicate
Deference
Compliments
Indirect
Elegant
Compliment

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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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Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.
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The difference there is betwixt honor and honesty seems to be chiefly the motive the mere honest man does that from duty which the man of honor does for the sake of character.
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Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives those who labor under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person in their favor.
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The lowest people are generally the first to find fault with show or equipage especially that of a person lately emerged from his obscurity. They never once consider that he is breaking the ice for themselves.
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The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
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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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Wit is the refractory pupil of judgment.
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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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Men are sometimes accused of pride, merely because their accusers would be proud themselves were they in their places.
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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance I mean where a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune.
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Men of quality never appear more amiable than when their dress is plain. Their birth, rank, title and its appendages are at best indivious and as they do not need the assistance of dress, so, by their disclaiming the advantage of it, they make their superiority sit more easy.
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Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.
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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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In designing a house and gardens, it is happy when there is an opportunity of maintaining a subordination of parts the house so luckily place as to exhibit a view of the whole design. I have sometimes thought that there was room for it to resemble a epic or dramatic poem.
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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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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.
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Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.
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