William Shenstone

When self-interest inclines a man to print, he should consider that the purchaser expects a pennyworth for his penny, and has reason…

— William Shenstone

Fashion is a great restraint upon your persons of taste and fancy; who would otherwise in the most trifling instances be able…

— William Shenstone

Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest…

— William Shenstone

My banks they are furnish'd with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep.

— William Shenstone

His knowledge of books had in some degree diminished his knowledge of the world.

— William Shenstone

Patience is the panacea; but where does it grow, or who can swallow it?

— William Shenstone

A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.

— William Shenstone

Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance; I mean where a person contracts his desires within the…

— William Shenstone

Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.

— William Shenstone

Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.

— William Shenstone

Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.

— William Shenstone

Persons who discover a flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications.

— William Shenstone

A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.

— William Shenstone

A fool and his words are soon parted.

— William Shenstone

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

— William Shenstone

Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.

— William Shenstone

Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice; whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is…

— William Shenstone

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

— William Shenstone

A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.

— William Shenstone

Nothing is certain in London but expense.

— William Shenstone

What some people term Freedom is nothing else than a liberty of saying and doing disagreeable things. It is but carrying the…

— William Shenstone

Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's…

— William Shenstone

The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.

— William Shenstone

Oft has good nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense.

— William Shenstone

To one who said, "I do not believe that there is an honest man in the world," another replied, "It is impossible…

— William Shenstone