Quote

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.

William Shenstone

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
May
Sufficient
Ennoble
Best
Discover
Gentility
Human
Daily
Constitute
Humans
Wealth
Virtues
Virtue
Possess
Word
Gentleman
Sense
Acquire
Nature
Crowds

More quotes by William Shenstone

Image
Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.
William Shenstone
Image
Health is beauty, and the most perfect health is the most perfect beauty.
William Shenstone
Image
The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.
William Shenstone
Image
A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.
William Shenstone
Image
Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.
William Shenstone
Image
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.
William Shenstone
Image
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.
William Shenstone
Image
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.
William Shenstone
Image
Wit is the refractory pupil of judgment.
William Shenstone
Image
Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.
William Shenstone
Image
A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happen to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.
William Shenstone
Image
To thee, fair Freedom! I retire From flattery, cards, and dice, and din: Nor art thou found in mansions higher Than the low cot, or humble inn.
William Shenstone
Image
I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
William Shenstone
Image
Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
William Shenstone
Image
Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them.
William Shenstone
Image
Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.
William Shenstone
Image
Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.
William Shenstone
Image
In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame.
William Shenstone
Image
Persons are oftentimes misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty.
William Shenstone
Image
Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.
William Shenstone