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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.

William Shenstone

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William Shenstone
Age: 48 †
Born: 1714
Born: November 18
Died: 1763
Died: February 11
Gardener
Horticulturist
Poet
Writer
Easy
Plain
Best
Titles
Need
Dress
Appendages
Needs
Appear
Amiable
Make
Dresses
Rank
Never
Advantage
Assistance
Men
Birth
Superiority
Quality
Title

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Love can be founded upon Nature only.
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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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There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day the reason is that people can commend it without envy.
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Those who are incapable of shining out by dress would do well to consider that the contrast between them and their clothes turns out much to their disadvantage.
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A large, branching, aged oak is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects.
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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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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.
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Glory relaxes often and debilitates the mind censure stimulates and contracts,--both to an extreme. Simple fame is, perhaps, the proper medium.
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Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief. while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.
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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 making presents to a lady one addresses is like throwing armor into an enemy's camp, with a resolution to recover it.
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What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.
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A statue in a garden is to be considered as one part of a scene or landscape.
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A court of heraldry sprung up to supply the place of crusade exploits, to grant imaginary shields and trophies to families that never wore real armor, and it is but of late that it has been discovered to have no real jurisdiction.
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Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
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Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.
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Thanks, oftenest obtrusive.
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Nothing is sure in London, except expense.
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However, I think a plain space near the eye gives it a kind of liberty it loves and then the picture, whether you choose the grand or beautiful, should be held up at its proper distance. Variety is the principal ingredient in beauty and simplicity is essential to grandeur.
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Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.
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