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Success in business is seldom owing to uncommon talents or original power which is untractable and self-willed, but to the greatest degree of commonplace capacity.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Power
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More quotes by 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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There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals.
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He who would see old Hoghton right Must view it by the pale moonlight.
William Hazlitt
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Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to amuse themselves. It is partly practice and partly habit. It requires an effort in them to speak truth.
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Hope is the best possession.
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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A wise traveler never despises his own country.
William Hazlitt
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What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.
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.
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It is only necessary to raise a bugbear before the English imagination in order to govern it at will. Whatever they hate or fear, they implicitly believe in, merely from the scope it gives to these passions.
William Hazlitt
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The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas.
William Hazlitt
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The vices are never so well employed as in combating one another.
William Hazlitt
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The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.
William Hazlitt
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Learning is its own exceeding great reward and at the period of which we speak, it bore other fruits, not unworthy of it.
William Hazlitt
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Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
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.
William Hazlitt
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The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.
William Hazlitt
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Despair swallows up cowardice.
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
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A mighty stream of tendency.
William Hazlitt