William Shenstone
William Shenstone
William Shenstonewas an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth18 November 1714
envious fame sloth towers views
Sloth views the towers of Fame with envious eyes, Desirous still, still impotent to rise.
decency driven far meet
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,Emblems right meet of decency does yield.
decency driven far meet
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow, Emblems right meet of decency does yield.
london expenses
Nothing is sure in London, except expense.
judgment pupils wit
Wit is the refractory pupil of judgment.
writing narrative facts
A plain narrative of any remarkable fact, emphatically related, has a more striking effect without the author's comment.
trials matter way
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.
learning coins may
Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.
friendship passion tree
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.
together woods fool
Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.
real sprung-up armor
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.
men abuse borders
A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happen to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.
enemy armor addresses
The making presents to a lady one addresses is like throwing armor into an enemy's camp, with a resolution to recover it.
gentleman crowds may
We may daily discover crowds acquire sufficient wealth to buy gentility, but very few that possess the virtues which ennoble human nature, and (in the best sense of the word) constitute a gentleman.