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It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Seem
Knave
Honest
Knaves
Greater
Incline
Pain
Indolence
Seems
Pains
Persons
Infinitely
Person
Requires
Would
Honesty
Contrivance

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Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
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A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
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To one who said, I do not believe that there is an honest man in the world, another replied, It is impossible that any one man should know all the world, but quite possible that one may know himself.
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Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.
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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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I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.
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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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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.
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Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.
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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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Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.
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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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The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
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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.
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