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If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
May
Intelligence
Human
Genius
Humans
Learning
Study
Reading
Read
Insignificance
Force
Commentators
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Shakespeare

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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The seat of knowledge is in the head of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.
William Hazlitt
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The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favor.
William Hazlitt
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Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects.
William Hazlitt
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Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.
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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Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.
William Hazlitt
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To speak highly of one with whom we are intimate is a species of egotism. Our modesty as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on this subject.
William Hazlitt
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We trifle with, make sport of, and despise those who are attached to us, and follow those that fly from us.
William Hazlitt
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The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.
William Hazlitt
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The objects that we have known in better days are the main props that sustain the weight of our affections, and give us strength to await our future lot.
William Hazlitt
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Poverty, labor, and calamity are not without their luxuries, which the rich, the indolent, and the fortunate in vain seek for.
William Hazlitt
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Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.
William Hazlitt
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The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.
William Hazlitt
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If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them if we are constantly with them, we despise them.
William Hazlitt
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The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way ... an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.
William Hazlitt
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The vain man makes a merit of misfortune, and triumphs in his disgrace.
William Hazlitt
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Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?
William Hazlitt
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True friendship is self-love at second hand where, as in a flattering mirror we may see our virtues magnified and our errors softened, and where we may fancy our opinion of ourselves confirmed by an impartial and faithful witness.
William Hazlitt
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The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.
William Hazlitt
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Silence is one great art of conversation.
William Hazlitt