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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
Often
Finger
Doe
Intimacy
Much
Sensitive
Fingers
Plant
Touch
Withers
Approach
Deference
Upon
Shrinks

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The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
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Thanks, oftenest obtrusive.
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The fund of sensible discourse is limited that of jest and badinerie is infinite.
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A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.
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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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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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Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever fighting and lawsuits, bleeding,--at least, an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money the former, of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation.
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Misers, as death approaches, are heaping up a chest of reasons to stand in more awe of him.
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Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior.
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