There would not be any ...

There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve if the world were honest; yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.
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 William Shenstone

Quotes from the same author

Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.
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 William Shenstone
Fashion is a great restraint upon your persons of taste and fancy; who would otherwise in the most trifling instances be able to distinguish themselves from the vulgar.
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 William Shenstone
Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance; I mean where a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune.
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 William Shenstone
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.
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 William Shenstone
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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 William Shenstone