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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
Critics
Consequence
Detects
Worse
Presumes
Level
Detection
Genius
Critic
Levels
Severe
Place
Author
Never
Faults

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Cruelty in all countries is the companion of anger but there is only one, and never was another on the globe, where she coquets both with anger and mirth.
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And Modesty, who, when she goes, Is gone for ever.
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The tomb is the pedestal of greatness. I make a distinction between God's great and the king's great.
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Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.
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Experience is our only teacher both in war and peace.
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How delightful it is to see a friend after a length of absence! How delightful to chide him for that length of absence to which we owe such delight.
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Truth sometimes corner unawares upon Caution, and sometimes speaks in public as unconsciously as in a dream.
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Vast objects of remote altitude must be looked at a long while before they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope tubes that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare and generations of men serve but a single witness to his claims.
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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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Do not expect to be acknowledged for what you are, much less for what you would be since no one can well measure a great man but upon the bier.
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Every witticism is an inexact thought that which is perfectly true is imperfectly witty.
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It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires.
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The habit of pleasing by flattery makes a language soft the fear of offending by truth makes it circuitous and conventional.
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What is reading but silent conversation?
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The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.
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States, like men, have their growth, their manhood, their decrepitude, their decay.
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Next in criminality to him who violates the laws of his country, is he who violates the language.
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Fame, they tell you, is air but without air there is no life for any without fame there is none for the best.
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Friendships are the purer and the more ardent, the nearer they come to the presence of God, the Sun not only of righteousness but of love.
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It appears to be among the laws of nature, that the mighty of intellect should be pursued and carped by the little, as the solitary flight of one great bird is followed by the twittering petulance of many smaller.
Walter Savage Landor