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Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Animal
Men
Poetical
Delights
Delight
Fiction

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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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.
William Hazlitt
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We talk little when we do not talk about ourselves.
William Hazlitt
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Our contempt for others proves nothing but the illiberality and narrowness of our own views.
William Hazlitt
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But of all footmen the lowest class is literary footmen.
William Hazlitt
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The worst old age is that of the mind.
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 greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them.
William Hazlitt
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Familiarity confounds all traits of distinction interest and prejudice take away the power of judging.
William Hazlitt
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It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.
William Hazlitt
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A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.
William Hazlitt
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The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.
William Hazlitt
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To the proud the slightest repulse or disappointment is the last indignity.
William Hazlitt
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To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.
William Hazlitt
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It is better to desire than to enjoy, to love than to be loved.
William Hazlitt
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If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.
William Hazlitt
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Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.
William Hazlitt
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The love of fame is almost another name for the love of excellence or it is the ambition to attain the highest excellence, sanctioned by the highest authority, that of time.
William Hazlitt
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If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.
William Hazlitt
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Persons who undertake to pry into, or cleanse out all the filth of a common sewer, either cannot have very nice noses, or will soon lose them.
William Hazlitt
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There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.
William Hazlitt