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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

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Must
Excuse
Great
Critics
Gnawing
Animals
Pruning
Advantage
Asses
Taught
Vines
Animal
Originally
Called
Ass
Certain
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The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.
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A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.
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Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.
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It seems idle to rail at ambition merely because it is a boundless passion or rather is not this circumstance an argument in its favor? If one would be employed or amused through life, should we not make choice of a passion that will keep one long in play?
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A plain narrative of any remarkable fact, emphatically related, has a more striking effect without the author's comment.
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Men of quality never appear more amiable than when their dress is plain. Their birth, rank, title and its appendages are at best indivious and as they do not need the assistance of dress, so, by their disclaiming the advantage of it, they make their superiority sit more easy.
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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, appears a hero in our eyes.
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In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends.
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Patience is the panacea but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?
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Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.
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A fool and his words are soon parted.
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