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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
Jest
Discourse
Sensible
Fund
Limited
Infinite

More quotes by William Shenstone

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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
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In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame.
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A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.
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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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Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.
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Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.
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There are no persons more solicitous about the preservation of rank than those who have no rank at all. Observe the humors of a country christening, and you will find no court in Christendom so ceremonious as the quality of Brentford.
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Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.
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Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives those who labor under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person in their favor.
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It is true there is nothing displays a genius, I mean a quickness of genius, more than a dispute as two diamonds, encountering, contribute to each other's luster. But perhaps the odds is much against the man of taste in this particular.
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When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments when to those of our own sect, we call them trials when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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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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Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use or, if sterling, may require good management to make it serve the purposes of sense or happiness.
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Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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Nothing is certain in London but expense.
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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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A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.
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The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
William Shenstone