William Shenstone (1714 – 1763)
English poet, essayist and one of the earliest practitoners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.
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Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome, at an inn.
For seldom shall she hear a tale
So sad, so tender, and so true.
There seem near as many people that want passion as want reason.
A little bench of heedless bishops here,
And there a chancellor in embryo.
So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.
I have found out a gift for my fair;
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed.
My banks they are furnish’d with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
Oft has good nature been the fool's defence,
And honest meaning gilded want of sense.
A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblem right meet of decency does yield.
Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice: whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.
Love is a pleasing but a various clime.
Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are shewing you the grounds of it.
Every good poet includes a critic; the reverse will not hold.
A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money.
Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.
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