Quote

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Thinking
Difficult
Speak
Natives
Anything
Correctly
Reason
Spontaneity
Wells
Manner
Well
Till
Never
Cease
Think
Language

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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The safest kind of praise is to foretell that another will become great in some particular way. It has the greatest show of magnanimity and the least of it in reality.
William Hazlitt
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Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.
William Hazlitt
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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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A man is a hypocrite only when he affects to take a delight in what he does not feel, not because he takes a perverse delight in opposite things.
William Hazlitt
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When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
William Hazlitt
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Natural affection is a prejudice for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.
William Hazlitt
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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.
William Hazlitt
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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.
William Hazlitt
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To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.
William Hazlitt
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A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
William Hazlitt
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It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play.
William Hazlitt
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Human life may be regarded as a succession of frontispieces. The way to be satisfied is never to look back.
William Hazlitt
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The most fluent talkers or most plausible reasoners are not always the justest thinkers.
William Hazlitt
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The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass to their daily affairs and experience to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
William Hazlitt
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Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.
William Hazlitt
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We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves.
William Hazlitt
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In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.
William Hazlitt
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Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from, the ties and objects that recall them but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth.
William Hazlitt
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We must be doing something to be happy.
William Hazlitt
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Religion either makes men wise and virtuous, or it makes them set up false pretenses to both.
William Hazlitt