Quote

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
Book
Verses
Psalm
Enough
Neck
Felons
Necks
Termed
Benefit
Plead
Saved
Psalms
Benefits
Aloud
Usually
Clergy
Felon
Reading
Verse
Aptly

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.
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No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.
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Asleep, nobody is a hypocrite
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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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There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
William Hazlitt
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Do not quarrel with the world too soon for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in, here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago.
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Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.
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Rules and models destroy genius and art.
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit--or a mask.
William Hazlitt
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The characteristic of Chaucer is intensity: of Spencer, remoteness: of Milton elevation and of Shakespeare everything.
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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.
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We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.
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The greatest grossness sometimes accompanies the greatest refinement, as a natural relief.
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A man who does not endeavour to seem more than he is will generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention to fashion is necessary.
William Hazlitt
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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 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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Prejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason.
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Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
William Hazlitt
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Hope is the best possession.
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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