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Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Artist
Sight
Art
Ignorance
May
Effects
Firsts
Taste
Novelty
First
Works
Admiration
Real
Growth
Permanent
Wonder
Delight
Knowledge
Effect

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Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.
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The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.
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It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed.
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Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see beyond a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space feels itself excluded.
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There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.
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Death cancels everything but truth and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It is a sort of natural canonization.
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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.
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The public is so in awe of its own opinion that it never dares to form any, but catches up the first idle rumour, lest it should be behindhand in its judgment, and echoes it till it is deafened with the sound of its own voice.
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Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.
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We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.
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Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
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The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass to their daily affairs and experience to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
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A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
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The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.
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The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.
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The affected modesty of most women is a decoy for the generous, the delicate, and unsuspecting while the artful, the bold, and unfeeling either see or break through its slender disguises.
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An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.
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When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country.
William Hazlitt
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The love of fame is almost another name for the love of excellence or it is the ambition to attain the highest excellence, sanctioned by the highest authority, that of time.
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I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth... I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them.
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