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The fund of sensible discourse is limited that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Sensible
Fund
Limited
Infinite
Jest
Discourse

More quotes by William Shenstone

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I am thankful that my name in obnoxious to no pun.
William Shenstone
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Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone entangled in it.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone
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Many persons, when exalted, assume an insolent humility, who behaved before with an insolent haughtiness.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone
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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
William Shenstone
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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
William Shenstone
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Misers, as death approaches, are heaping up a chest of reasons to stand in more awe of him.
William Shenstone
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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
William Shenstone
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Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.
William Shenstone
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A wound in the friendship of young persons, as in the bark of young trees, may be so grown over as to leave no scar. The case is very different in regard to old persons and old timber. The reason of this may be accountable from the decline of the social passions, and the prevalence of spleen, suspicion, and rancor towards the latter part of life.
William Shenstone
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Fashion is a great restraint upon your persons of taste and fancy who would otherwise in the most trifling instances be able to distinguish themselves from the vulgar.
William Shenstone
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There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day the reason is that people can commend it without envy.
William Shenstone
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Offensive objects, at a proper distance, acquire even a degree of beauty.
William Shenstone
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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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Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.
William Shenstone
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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.
William Shenstone
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A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
William Shenstone
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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