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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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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Disposition
Proof
Lows
Genteel
Talking
Gentility
Cannot
Surer
Always
Meanness
Thinking
Innate
Origin

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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Pride goes before a fall, they say, And yet we often find, The folks who throw all pride away Most often fall behind.
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To expect an author to talk as he writes is ridiculous or even if he did you would find fault with him as a pedant.
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A Whig is properly what is called a Trimmer - that is, a coward to both sides of the question, who dare not be a knave nor an honest man, but is a sort of whiffing, shuffling, cunning, silly, contemptible, unmeaning negation of the two.
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Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.
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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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Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.
William Hazlitt
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We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts.
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That which anyone has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportional eagerness and haste.
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Mankind are so ready to bestow their admiration on the dead, because the latter do not hear it, or because it gives no pleasure to the objects of it. Even fame is the offspring of envy.
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It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary inference is the fair one.
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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.
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From the height from which the great look down on the world all the rest of mankind seem equal.
William Hazlitt
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There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.
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One truth discovered is immortal, and entitles its author to be so for, like a new substance in nature, it cannot be destroyed.
William Hazlitt
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When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country.
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There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character.
William Hazlitt
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True friendship is self-love at second hand where, as in a flattering mirror we may see our virtues magnified and our errors softened, and where we may fancy our opinion of ourselves confirmed by an impartial and faithful witness.
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When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.
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Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
William Hazlitt
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We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.
William Hazlitt