William Shenstone Quotes

William Shenstone

Profession : Poet

Birth : November 18, 1714

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.

William Shenstone

Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior.

William Shenstone

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

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

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.

William Shenstone

A fool and his words are soon parted.

William Shenstone

Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.

William Shenstone

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.

William Shenstone

A miser grows rich by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

William Shenstone

The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.

William Shenstone

The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.

William Shenstone

Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases.

William Shenstone

What leads to unhappiness, is making pleasure the chief aim.

William Shenstone

Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.

William Shenstone

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

William Shenstone

The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.

William Shenstone

Every single instance of a friend's insincerity increases our dependence on the efficacy of money.

William Shenstone

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.

William Shenstone

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

William Shenstone

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

William Shenstone