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The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Embarrassing
Assumption
Merit
Actual
Genius
Easier
Talent
Effectual
Less
Attainment

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If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.
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Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt none out of ten have the inclination.
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Walk groundly, talk profoundly, drink roundly, sleep soundly.
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One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey I can enjoy society in a room but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.
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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 confined air of a metropolis is hurtful to the minds and bodies of those who have never lived out of it. It is impure, stagnant--without breathing-space to allow a larger view of ourselves or others--and gives birth to a puny, sickly, unwholesome, and degenerate race of beings.
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We go on a journey to be free of all impediments to leave ourselves behind much more than to get rid of others
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The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.
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Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
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Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise of all arguments the most unanswerable.
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Envy is littleness of soul.
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Every man, in judging of himself, is his own contemporary. He may feel the gale of popularity, but he cannot tell how long it will last. His opinion of himself wants distance, wants time, wants numbers, to set it off and confirm it.
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit--or a mask.
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Books wind into the heart.
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The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
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Those people who are always improving never become great. Greatness is an eminence, the ascent to which is steep and lofty, and which a man must seize on at once by natural boldness and vigor, and not by patient, wary steps.
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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.
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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.
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Keep your misfortunes to yourself.
William Hazlitt
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Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.
William Hazlitt