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A felon could plead benefit of clergy and be saved by [reading aloud] what was aptly enough termed the neck verse, which was very usually the Miserere mei of Psalm 51.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Saved
Psalms
Benefits
Aloud
Usually
Clergy
Felon
Reading
Verse
Aptly
Book
Verses
Psalm
Enough
Neck
Felons
Necks
Termed
Benefit
Plead

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
William Hazlitt
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There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.
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Many a man would have turned rogue if he knew how.
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Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
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A Whig is properly what is called a Trimmer - that is, a coward to both sides of the question, who dare not be a knave nor an honest man, but is a sort of whiffing, shuffling, cunning, silly, contemptible, unmeaning negation of the two.
William Hazlitt
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An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence a vain man, in order that it may.
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Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.
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Experience makes us wise.
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An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.
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Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.
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Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.
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Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.
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Popularity disarms envy in well-disposed minds. Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others who feel that the world has done them justice. When success has not this effect in opening the mind, it is a sign that it has been ill deserved.
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Nothing precludes sympathy so much as a perfect indifference to it
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Words are the only things that last for ever.
William Hazlitt
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The admiration of power in others is as common to man as the love of it in himself the one makes him a tyrant, the other a slave.
William Hazlitt
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Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense a substitute for true knowledge.
William Hazlitt
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Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.
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Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.
William Hazlitt
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Love may turn to indifference with possession.
William Hazlitt