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Men are in numberless instances qualified for certain things, for no other reason than because they are qualified for nothing else.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Men
Qualified
Instance
Ability
Else
Certain
Reason
Nothing
Numberless
Things
Instances

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.
William Hazlitt
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Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope.
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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I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.
William Hazlitt
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We can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home!
William Hazlitt
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Learning is the knowledge of that which none but the learned know.
William Hazlitt
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Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.
William Hazlitt
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We had rather do anything than acknowledge the merit of another if we can help it. We cannot bear a superior or an equal. Hence ridicule is sure to prevail over truth, for the malice of mankind, thrown into the scale, gives the casting weight.
William Hazlitt
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All is without form and void. Someone said of his landscapes that they were pictures of nothing and very like.
William Hazlitt
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The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
William Hazlitt
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit -- or a mask. . . . The foregoing maxim shows the difference between truth and sarcasm.
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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We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.
William Hazlitt
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Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.
William Hazlitt
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There cannot be a surer proof of low origin, or of an innate meanness of disposition, than to be always talking and thinking of being genteel.
William Hazlitt
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The devil was a great loss in the preternatural world. He was always something to fear and to hate he supplied the antagonist powers of the imagination, and the arch of true religion hardly stands firm without him.
William Hazlitt
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The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
William Hazlitt
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If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
William Hazlitt
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Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.
William Hazlitt
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Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
William Hazlitt