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The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
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More quotes by William Hazlitt

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You will hear more good things on the outside of a stagecoach from London to Oxford than if you were to pass a twelvemonth with the undergraduates, or heads of colleges, of that famous university.
William Hazlitt
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There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which, we often yield as to a resistless power nor can he reasonably expect, the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.
William Hazlitt
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Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.
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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Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.
William Hazlitt
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In public speaking, we must appeal either to the prejudices of others, or to the love of truth and justice. If we think merely of displaying our own ability, we shall ruin every cause we undertake.
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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Within my heart is lurking suspicion, and base fear, and shame and hate but above all, tyrannous love sits throned, crowned with her graces, silent and in tears.
William Hazlitt
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One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.
William Hazlitt
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To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it.
William Hazlitt
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Habit is necessary to give power.
William Hazlitt
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Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
William Hazlitt
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Diffidence and awkwardness are antidotes to love.
William Hazlitt
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When I take up a book I have read before, I know what to expect the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated. I shake hands with, and look our old tried and valued friend in the face,--compare notes and chat the hour away.
William Hazlitt
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The soil of friendship is worn out with constant use. Habit may still attach us to each other, but we feel ourselves fettered by it. Old friends might be compared to old married people without the tie of children.
William Hazlitt
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A person who talks with equal vivacity on every subject, excites no interest in any. Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.
William Hazlitt
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It is the vice of scholars to suppose that there is no knowledge in the world but that of books.
William Hazlitt
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Cant is the voluntary overcharging or prolongation of a real sentiment hypocrisy is the setting up a pretension to a feeling you never had and have no wish for.
William Hazlitt
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The history of mankind is a romance, a mask, a tragedy, constructed upon the principles of POETICAL JUSTICE it is a noble or royal hunt, in which what is sport to the few is death to the many, and in which the spectators halloo and encourage the strong to set upon the weak, and cry havoc in the chase, though they do not share in the spoil.
William Hazlitt
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Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.
William Hazlitt