William Shenstone Quotes

I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.

It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

Since the generality of persons act from impulse, much more than from principle, men are neither so good nor so bad as we are apt to think them.

I don't read reviews, and I try not to read articles about me. It taints your outlook: if you believe the good things, you've got to believe the bad things, too.

It's easy to see the faults in people I know; it's hardest to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.

A person himself believes that all the other portraits are good likenesses except the one of himself.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

We must not indulge in unfavorable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.

People read way too much into personalities and all that stuff.

The properties of people and the properties of character have almost nothing to do with each other. They really don't. I know it seems like they do because we look alike, but people don't speak in dialogue. Their lives don't unfold in a series of scenes that form a narrative arc.

I'm very interested in what makes people tick; people are so weird and complicated.

You cannot analyse your personality. It is like trying to understand the essential characteristics of a person.

There is nothing called negative character. The negativity and positivity exists in all of us.

In describing someone's character, I reveal my own.

You never display your character more clearly than when you speak about the character of others.

I introspect on how I am perceived by other people. It's been this way since my childhood.

Because I am fascinated by people and what makes them behave the way they do. I think it is one of the most fascinating things in the world.

Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. Sometimes it does. But the danger is, that while a man grows better pleased with himself, he may be growing less pleasing to others. Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has presented.

It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.

The reasons which any man offers to you for his own conduct betray his opinion of your character.

Such as every man is inwardly so he judgeth outwardly.

You can only be in a bad mood for so long before you have to face up to the fact that it isn't a bad mood at all; it's just your sucky personality.