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A critic is never too severe when he only detects the faults of an author. But he is worse than too severe when, in consequence of this detection, be presumes to place himself on a level with genius.

Walter Savage Landor

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Walter Savage Landor
Age: 89 †
Born: 1775
Born: January 30
Died: 1864
Died: September 17
Poet
Writer
Warwick
Warwickshire
Never
Faults
Critics
Consequence
Detects
Worse
Presumes
Level
Detection
Genius
Critic
Levels
Severe
Place
Author

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In the morn of life we are alert, we are heated in its noon, and only in its decline do we repose.
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Despotism sits nowhere so secure as under the effigy and ensigns of freedom.
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In honest truth, a name given to a man is no better than a skin given to him what is not natively his own falls off and comes to nothing.
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No truer word, save God's, was ever spoken, Than that the largest heart is soonest broken.
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When a cat flatters ... he is not insincere: you may safely take it for real kindness.
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I have suffered more from my bad dancing than from all the misfortunes and miseries of my life put together.
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Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small quantities, calms men in larger, heats and irritates them, and is attended by fatal consequences in excess.
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Greatness, as we daily see it, is unsociable.
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Of all studies, the most delightful and the most useful is biography. The seeds of great events lie near the surface historians delve too deep for them. No history was ever true. Lives I have read which, if they were not, had the appearance, the interest, and the utility of truth.
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There is no eloquence which does not agitate the soul.
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What is reading but silent conversation?
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If in argument we can make a man angry with us, we have drawn him from his vantage ground and overcome him.
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It often comes into my head That we may dream when we are dead, But I am far from sure we do. O that it were so! then my rest Would be indeed among the blest I should for ever dream of you.
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Happiness, like air and water, the other two great requisites of life, is composite. One kind of it suits one man, another kind another. The elevated mind takes in and breathes out again that which would be uncongenial to the baser and the baser draws life and enjoyment from that which would be putridity to the loftier.
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No friendship is so cordial or so delicious as that of girl for girl no hatred so intense and immovable as that of woman for woman.
Walter Savage Landor
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A true philosopher is beyond the reach of fortune.
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The eyes of critics, whether in commending or carping, are both on one side, like a turbot's.
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I warmed both hands before the fire of life It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Walter Savage Landor
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We oftener say things because we can say them well, than because they are sound and reasonable.
Walter Savage Landor
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I have since written what no tide Shall ever wash away, what men Unborn shall read o'er ocean wide And find Ianthe's name agen.
Walter Savage Landor