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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.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Fingers
Plant
Touch
Withers
Approach
Deference
Upon
Shrinks
Often
Finger
Doe
Intimacy
Much
Sensitive

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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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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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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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The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.
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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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I am thankful that my name in obnoxious to no pun.
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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
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Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief. while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.
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Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good sense than we find assurance and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright stupidity.
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It happens a little unluckily that the persons who have the most infinite contempt of money are the same that have the strongest appetite for the pleasures it procures.
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Reserve is no more essentially connected with understanding than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature.
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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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The weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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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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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
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Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases.
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Every single instance of a friend's insincerity increases our dependence on the efficacy of money.
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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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Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few.
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