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The expression of a gentleman's face is not so much that of refinement, as of flexibility, not of sensibility and enthusiasm as of indifference; it argues presence of mind rather than enlargement of ideas.
William Hazlitt -
Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.
William Hazlitt
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The vices are never so well employed as in combating one another.
William Hazlitt -
The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.
William Hazlitt -
Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.
William Hazlitt -
There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.
William Hazlitt -
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.
William Hazlitt -
The mind revolts against certain opinions, as the stomach rejects certain foods.
William Hazlitt
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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 -
Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.
William Hazlitt -
I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be sure that he is not a knave as well.
William Hazlitt -
What I mean by living to one's self is living in the world, as in it, not of it.
William Hazlitt -
The wretched are in this respect fortunate, that they have the strongest yearning after happiness; and to desire is in some sense to enjoy.
William Hazlitt -
The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.
William Hazlitt
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Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects.
William Hazlitt -
Actors are the only honest hypocrites.
William Hazlitt -
We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
William Hazlitt -
Malice often takes the garb of truth.
William Hazlitt -
In love we do not think of moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and manner alone, with beauty, excite love.
William Hazlitt -
A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.
William Hazlitt
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Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.
William Hazlitt -
There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which, we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect, the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.
William Hazlitt -
No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.
William Hazlitt -
We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
William Hazlitt