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No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Ever
Stealth
Approaches
Unknown
Perfection
Except
Approach

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.
William Hazlitt
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To the proud the slightest repulse or disappointment is the last indignity.
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Familiarity confounds all traits of distinction interest and prejudice take away the power of judging.
William Hazlitt
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A wise traveler never despises his own country.
William Hazlitt
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No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he.
William Hazlitt
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Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.
William Hazlitt
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Pride erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it.
William Hazlitt
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If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.
William Hazlitt
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What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.
William Hazlitt
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Envy is the deformed and distorted offspring of egotism and when we reflect on the strange and disproportioned character of the parent, we cannot wonder at the perversity and waywardness of the child.
William Hazlitt
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Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
William Hazlitt
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He who draws upon his own resources easily comes to an end of his wealth.
William Hazlitt
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Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.
William Hazlitt
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The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.
William Hazlitt
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Love and joy are twins or born of each other.
William Hazlitt
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A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
William Hazlitt
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That which anyone has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportional eagerness and haste.
William Hazlitt
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They [corporations] feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.
William Hazlitt
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Every man depends on the quantity of sense, wit, or good manners he brings into society for the reception he meets with in it.
William Hazlitt
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The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.
William Hazlitt