Quote

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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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Interest
Repose
Persons
Talks
Person
Picture
Every
Subject
Conversation
Necessary
Subjects
Vivacity
Equal
Excites

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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No really great man ever thought himself so.
William Hazlitt
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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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Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference.
William Hazlitt
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Life is the art of being well deceived.
William Hazlitt
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Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.
William Hazlitt
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A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.
William Hazlitt
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We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.
William Hazlitt
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We grow tired of ourselves, much more of other people.
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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The public have neither shame or gratitude.
William Hazlitt
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By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.
William Hazlitt
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It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.
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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The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test: for it is on that on which our success in life depends.
William Hazlitt
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No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
William Hazlitt
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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.
William Hazlitt
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Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
William Hazlitt
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Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.
William Hazlitt
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A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.
William Hazlitt
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In love we do not think of moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and manner alone, with beauty, excite love.
William Hazlitt