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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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Our Contempt For Others

William Hazlitt
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Our Contempt For Others Proves Nothing But The Illiberality And Narrowness Of Our Own Views.

Understanding the Quote: "our contempt for others proves nothing but the illiberality and narrowness of..."

This quote by William Hazlitt reflects deeply on the theme of views. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Views, Disrespect, Prove, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how William Hazlitt interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt is celebrated for insightful thoughts on views and disrespect. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Views
Disrespect
Prove
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Those Who Are Pleased With The Fewest Things Know The Least, As Those Who Are Pleased With Everything Know Nothing.
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The Garb Of Religion Is The Best Cloak For Power.
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Indolence Is A Delightful But Distressing State; We Must Be Doing Something To Be Happy. Action Is No Less Necessary Than Thought To The Instinctive Tendencies Of The Human Frame.
Happiness
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In Exploring New And Doubtful Tracts Of Speculation, The Mind Strikes Out True And Original Views; As A Drop Of Water Hesitates At First What Direction It Will Take, But Afterwards Follows Its Own Course.
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A Nickname Is The Hardest Stone That The Devil Can Throw At A Man.
Men
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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.
Appreciation
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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.
True Friend
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Art Must Anchor In Nature, Or It Is The Sport Of Every Breath Of Folly.
Sports
Art
Anchors
Common Sense, To Most People, Is Nothing More Than Their Own Opinions.
People
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There Is Nothing So Remote From Vanity As True Genius. It Is Almost As Natural For Those Who Are Endowed With The Highest Powers Of The Human Mind To Produce The Miracles Of Art, As For Other Men To Breathe Or Move. Correggio, Who Is Said To Have Produced Some Of His Divinest Works Almost Without Having Seen A Picture, Probably Did Not Know That He Had Done Anything Extraordinary.
Art
Moving
Men
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.
Presence Of Mind
Expression
Ideas
I Am Not, In The Ordinary Acceptation Of The Term, A Good-natured Man; That Is, Many Things Annoy Me Besides What Interferes With My Own Ease And Interest. I Hate A Lie; A Piece Of Injustice Wounds Me To The Quick, Though Nothing But The Report Of It Reach Me. Therefore I Have Made Many Enemies And Few Friends; For The Public Know Nothing Of Well-wishers, And Keep A Wary Eye On Those Who Would Reform Them.
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Grace Has Been Defined As The Outward Expression Of The Inward Harmony Of The Soul.
Spiritual
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We Must Overact Our Part In Some Measure, In Order To Produce Any Effect At All.
Order
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Acting
A Lively Blockhead In Company Is A Public Benefit. Silence Or Dulness By The Side Of Folly Looks Like Wisdom.
Silence
Looks
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We Prefer A Person With Vivacity And High Spirits, Though Bordering Upon Insolence, To The Timid And Pusillanimous; We Are Fonder Of Wit Joined To Malice Than Of Dullness Without It.
Spirit
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Taste Is Nothing But An Enlarged Capacity For Receiving Pleasure From Works Of Imagination.
Art
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Many A Man Would Have Turned Rogue If He Knew How.
Men
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Ifs
A Great Chessplayer Is Not A Great Man, For He Leaves The World As He Found It.
Men
World
Great Men
The Corpse Of Friendship Is Not Worth Embalming.
Friendship
Embalming
Corpses
The Vain Man Makes A Merit Of Misfortune, And Triumphs In His Disgrace.
Men
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Triumph
There Is No Prejudice So Strong As That Which Arises From A Fancied Exemption From All Prejudice.
Strong
Diversity
Prejudice
To Display The Greatest Powers, Unless They Are Applied To Great Purposes, Makes Nothing For The Character Of Greatness.
Character
Greatness
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Society Is A More Level Surface Than We Imagine. Wise Men Or Absolute Fools Are Hard To Be Met With, As There Are Few Giants Or Dwarfs. The Heaviest Charge We Can Bring Against The General Texture Of Society Is That It Is Commonplace. Our Fancied Superiority To Others Is In Some One Thing Which We Think Most Of Because We Excel In It, Or Have Paid Most Attention To It; Whilst We Overlook Their Superiority To Us In Something Else Which They Set Equal And Exclusive Store By.
Wise
Men
Thinking
A Certain Excess Of Animal Spirits With Thoughtless Good-humor Will Often Make More Enemies Than The Most Deliberate Spite And Ill-nature, Which Is On Its Guard, And Strikes With Caution And Safety.
Animal
Safety
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He Who Lives Wisely To Himself And His Own Heart Looks At The Busy World Through The Loopholes Of Retreat, And Does Not Want To Mingle In The Fray.
Retirement
Heart
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What I Mean By Living To One's Self Is Living In The World, As In It, Not Of It.
Mean
Self
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Hope Is The Best Possession.
Hopeful
Anticipation
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Anyone Who Has Passed Though The Regular Gradations Of A Classical Education, And Is Not Made A Fool By It, May Consider Himself As Having Had A Very Narrow Escape.
Education
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To Be Happy, We Must Be True To Nature And Carry Our Age Along With Us.
Birthday
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Envy Is Littleness Of Soul.
Envy
Soul
There Is Nothing More Likely To Drive A Man Mad, Than The Being Unable To Get Rid Of The Idea Of The Distinction Between Right And Wrong, And An Obstinate, Constitutional Preference Of The True To The Agreeable.
Integrity
Men
Ideas
We Do Not Attend To The Advice Of The Sage And Experienced Because We Think They Are Old, Forgetting That They Once Were Young And Placed In The Same Situations As Ourselves.
Thinking
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Few Things Tend More To Alienate Friendship Than A Want Of Punctuality In Our Engagements. I Have Known The Breach Of A Promise To Dine Or Sup To Break Up More Than One Intimacy.
Friendship
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We Can Scarcely Hate Anyone That We Know.
Hate
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Wit Is, In Fact, The Eloquence Of Indifference.
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We Can Bear To Be Deprived Of Everything But Our Self-conceit.
Conceited
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We Are Fonder Of Visiting Our Friends In Health Than In Sickness. We Judge Less Favorably Of Their Characters When Any Misfortune Happens To Them; And A Lucky Hit, Either In Business Or Reputation, Improves Even Their Personal Appearance In Our Eyes.
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We All Wear Some Disguise, Make Some Professions, Use Some Artifice, To Set Ourselves Off As Being Better Than We Are; And Yet It Is Not Denied That We Have Some Good Intentions And Praiseworthy Qualities At Bottom.
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No Man Can Thoroughly Master More Than One Art Or Science.
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True Modesty And True Pride Are Much The Same Thing: Both Consist In Setting A Just Value On Ourselves - Neither More Nor Less.
Pride
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In What We Really Understand, We Reason But Little.
Understanding
Littles
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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.
Hate
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Without The Aid Of Prejudice And Custom, I Should Not Be Able To Find My Way Across The Room.
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Able
Way
The Amiable Is The Voluptuous In Expression Or Manner. The Sense Of Pleasure In Ourselves Is That Which Excites It In Others; Or, The Art Of Pleasing Is To Seem Pleased.
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The Truth Is, We Pamper Little Griefs Into Great Ones, And Bear Great Ones As Well As We Can.
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Popularity Is Neither Fame Nor Greatness.
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Most Of The Methods For Measuring The Lapse Of Time Have, I Believe, Been The Contrivance Of Monks And Religious Recluses, Who, Finding Time Hang Heavy On Their Hands, Were At Some Pains To See How They Got Rid Of It.
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Satirists Gain The Applause Of Others Through Fear, Not Through Love.
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Spleen Can Subsist On Any Kind Of Food.
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The Fear Of Punishment May Be Necessary To The Suppression Of Vice; But It Also Suspends The Finer Motives Of Virtue.
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No Truly Great Person Ever Thought Themselves So.
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In Public Speaking, We Must Appeal Either To The Prejudices Of Others, Or To The Love Of Truth And Justice. If We Think Merely Of Displaying Our Own Ability, We Shall Ruin Every Cause We Undertake.
Thinking
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To Speak Highly Of One With Whom We Are Intimate Is A Species Of Egotism. Our Modesty As Well As Our Jealousy Teaches Us Caution On This Subject.
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Diffidence And Awkwardness Are Antidotes To Love.
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Diffidence
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We Grow Tired Of Everything But Turning Others Into Ridicule, And Congratulating Ourselves On Their Defects.
Tired
Ridicule
Grows
I Do Not Think There Is Anything Deserving The Name Of Society To Be Found Out Of London.
Thinking
Names
London
However We May Flatter Ourselves To The Contrary, Our Friends Think No Higher Of Us Than The World Do. They See Us Through The Jaundiced Or Distrustful Eyes Of Others. They May Know Better, But Their Feelings Are Governed By Popular Prejudice. Nay, They Are More Shy Of Us (when Under A Cloud) Than Even Strangers; For We Involve Them In A Common Disgrace, Or Compel Them To Embroil Themselves In Continual Quarrels And Disputes In Our Defense.
Eye
Thinking
Clouds
...greatness Sympathises With Greatness, And Littleness Shrinks Into Itself.
Greatness
Dignity
Shrinks
It Is Remarkable How Virtuous And Generously Disposed Every One Is At A Play.
Drama
Play
Remarkable
The Poetical Impression Of Any Object Is That Uneasy, Exquisite Sense Of Beauty Or Power That Cannot Be Contained Within Itself; That Is Impatient Of All Limit; That (as Flame Bends To Flame) Strives To Link Itself To Some Other Image Of Kindred Beauty Or Grandeur; To Enshrine Itself, As It Were, In The Highest Forms Of Fancy, And To Relieve The Aching Sense Of Pleasure By Expressing It In The Boldest Manner.
Beauty
Flames
Links
Nothing Precludes Sympathy So Much As A Perfect Indifference To It
Sympathy
Perfect
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Grace In Women Has More Effect Than Beauty. We Sometimes See A Certain Fine Self-possession, An Habitual Voluptuousness Of Character, Which Reposes On Its Own Sensations And Derives Pleasure From All Around It, That Is More Irresistible Than Any Other Attraction. There Is An Air Of Languid Enjoyment In Such Persons, "in Their Eyes, In Their Arms, And Their Hands, And Their Face," Which Robs Us Of Ourselves, And Draws Us By A Secret Sympathy Towards Them.
Character
Eye
Air
A Man Who Is Determined Never To Move Out Of The Beaten Road Cannot Lose His Way.
Moving
Men
Way
Refinement Creates Beauty Everywhere. It Is The Grossness Of The Spectator That Discovers Anything Like Grossness In The Object.
Beauty Everywhere
Refinement
Spectators
There Is No Flattery So Adroit Or Effectual As That Of Implicit Assent.
Flattery
Implicit
They Are, As It Were, Train-bearers In The Pageant Of Life, And Hold A Glass Up To Humanity, Frailer Than Itself. We See Ourselves At Second-hand In Them: They Show Us All That We Are, All That We Wish To Be, And All That We Dread To Be. What Brings The Resemblance Nearer Is, That, As They Imitate Us, We, In Our Turn, Imitate Them. There Is No Class Of Society Whom So Many Persons Regard With Affection As Actors.
Life
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Hands
There Are No Rules For Friendship. It Must Be Left To Itself. We Cannot Force It Any More Than Love.
Love
Friendship
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Good Temper Is An Estate For Life.
Life
Estates
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It Is Hard For Any One To Be An Honest Politician Who Is Not Born And Bred A Dissenter.
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The Humblest Painter Is A True Scholar; And The Best Of Scholars The Scholar Of Nature.
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What I Mean By Living To One's-self Is Living In The World, As In It, Not Of It: It Is As If No One Know There Was Such A Person, And You Wished No One To Know It: It Is To Be A Silent Spectator Of The Mighty Scene Of Things, Not An Object Of Attention Or Curiosity In It; To Take A Thoughtful, Anxious Interest In What Is Passing In The World, But Not To Feel The Slightest Inclination To Make Or Meddle With It.
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Self
Learning Is Its Own Exceeding Great Reward.
Education
Teaching
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The Greatest Pleasure In Life Is That Of Reading While We Are Young. I Have Had As Much Of This Pleasure Perhaps As Any One.
Reading
Book
Life Is
General Principles Are Not The Less True Or Important Because From Their Nature They Elude Immediate Observation; They Are Like The Air, Which Is Not The Less Necessary Because We Neither See Nor Feel It.
Philosophy
Elude Us
Air
If The World Were Good For Nothing Else, It Is A Fine Subject For Speculation.
World
Fine
Speculation
In Art, In Taste, In Life, In Speech, You Decide From Feeling, And Not From Reason. If We Were Obliged To Enter Into A Theoretical Deliberation On Every Occasion Before We Act, Life Would Be At A Stand, And Art Would Be Impracticable.
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Poetry Is All That Is Worth Remembering In Life.
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If A Person Has No Delicacy, He Has You In His Power.
Power
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The Youth Is Better Than The Old Age Of Friendship.
Friendship
Age
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The Most Learned Are Often The Most Narrow Minded.
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Narrow-minded
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Elegance Is Something More Than Ease; It Is More Than A Freedom From Awkwardness Or Restraint. It Implies, I Conceive, A Precision, A Polish, A Sparkling, Spirited Yet Delicate.
Ease
Elegance
Precision
Man Is An Intellectual Animal, And Therefore An Everlasting Contradiction To Himself. His Senses Centre In Himself, His Ideas Reach To The Ends Of The Universe; So That He Is Torn In Pieces Between The Two, Without A Possibility Of Its Ever Being Otherwise.
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Animal
Ideas
There Is No One Thoroughly Despicable. We Cannot Descend Much Lower Than An Idiot; And An Idiot Has Some Advantages Over A Wise Man.
Wise
Men
Idiot
To Great Evils We Submit, We Resent Little Provocations.
Evil
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Littles
When The Imagination Is Continually Led To The Brink Of Vice By A System Of Terror And Denunciations, People Fling Themselves Over The Precipice From The Mere Dread Of Falling.
Fall
People
Imagination
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.
Business
Self
Owing
When We Forget Old Friends, It Is A Sign We Have Forgotten Ourselves.
Old Friends
Forget
Forgotten
Whatever Interests Is Interesting.
Interesting
Interest
To-day Kings, To-marrow Beggars, It Is Only When They Are Themselves That They Are Nothing.
Kings
Acting
Beggar
A Person Who Talks With Equal Vivacity On Every Subject, Excites No Interest In Any. Repose Is As Necessary In Conversation As In A Picture.
Conversation
Vivacity
Equal
The Multitude Who Require To Be Led, Still Hate Their Leaders.
Leadership
Hate
Stills
Give Me The Clear Blue Sky Over My Head, And The Green Turf Beneath My Feet, A Winding Road Before Me, And A Three Hours' March To Dinner - And Then To Thinking! ... I Begin To Feel, Think, And Be Myself Again. Instead Of An Awkward Silence, Broken By Attempts At Wit Or Dull Common-places, Mine Is That Undisturbed Silence Of The Heart Which Alone Is Perfect Eloquence.
Heart
Thinking
Blue
Humour Is The Making Others Act Or Talk Absurdly And Unconsciously; Wit Is The Pointing Out And Ridiculing That Absurdity Consciously, And With More Or Less Ill-nature.
Funny
Humour
Wit
We Cannot By A Little Verbal Sophistry Confound The Qualities Of Different Minds, Nor Force Opposite Excellences Into A Union By All The Intolerance In The World. If We Have A Taste For Some One Precise Style Or Manner, We May Keep It To Ourselves And Let Others Have Theirs. If We Are More Catholic In Our Notions, And Want Variety Of Excellence And Beauty, It Is Spread Abroad For Us To Profusion In The Variety Of Books And In The Several Growth Of Men's Minds, Fettered By No Capricious Or Arbitrary Rules.
Book
Men
Opposites
Just As Much As We See In Others We Have In Ourselves.
Confidence
Self Confidence
Learning Is, In Too Many Cases, But A Foil To Common Sense; A Substitute For True Knowledge. Books Are Less Often Made Use Of As Spectacles To Look At Nature With, Than As Blinds To Keep Out Its Strong Light And Shifting Scenery From Weak Eyes And Indolent Dispositions. The Learned Are Mere Literary Drudges.
Nature
Strong
Book
Political Truth Is Libel; Religious Truth, Blasphemy.
Religious
Truth
Political
He Who Draws Upon His Own Resources Easily Comes To An End Of His Wealth.
Wealth
Ends
Resources
We Grow Tired Of Ourselves, Much More Of Other People.
Tired
People
Grows
The Secret Of The Difficulties Of Those People Who Make A Great Deal Of Money, And Yet Are Always In Want Of It, Is This-they Throw It Away As Soon As They Get It On The First Whim Or Extravagance That Strikes Them, And Have Nothing Left To Meet Ordinary Expenses Or Discharge Old Debts.
Money
People
Secret
Avarice Is The Miser's Dream, As Fame Is The Poet's.
Dream
Fame
Poet
Dandyism Is A Species Of Genius.
Genius
Dandyism
Species
Death Puts An End To Rivalship And Competition. The Dead Can Boast No Advantage Over Us, Nor Can We Triumph Over Them.
Competition
Triumph
Advantage
Books Let Us Into Their Souls And Lay Open To Us The Secrets Of Our Own.
Happiness
Teacher
Attitude
He Will Never Have True Friends Who Is Afraid Of Making Enemies.
Friendship
True Friend
Fear
Our Friends Are Generally Ready To Do Everything For Us, Except The Very Thing We Wish Them To Do.
Kindness
Wish
Favors
Rules And Models Destroy Genius And Art.
Art
Freedom
Teaching
A Distinction Has Been Made Between Acuteness And Subtlety Of Understanding. This Might Be Illustrated By Saying That Acuteness Consists In Taking Up The Points Or Solid Atoms, Subtlety In Feeling The Air Of Truth.
Air
Understanding
Feelings
It Is Well There Is No One Without Fault; For He Would Not Have A Friend In The World. He Would Seem To Belong To S Different Species.
Optimistic
Different
World
Our Contempt For Others Proves Nothing But The Illiberality And Narrowness Of Our Own Views.
Views
Disrespect
Prove
If Goodness Were Only A Theory, It Were A Pity It Should Be Lost To The World. There Are A Number Of Things, The Idea Of Which Is A Clear Gain To The Mind. Let People, For Instance, Rail At Friendship, Genius, Freedom, As Long As They Will -the Very Names Of These Despised Qualities Are Better Than Anything Else That Could Be Substituted For Them, And Embalm Even The Most Envenomed Satire Against Them.
Names
Ideas
Numbers
The Same Reason Makes A Man A Religious Enthusiast That Makes A Man An Enthusiast In Any Other Way ... An Uncomfortable Mind In An Uncomfortable Body.
Religious
Men
Mind
One Truth Discovered, One Pang Of Regret At Not Being Able To Express It, Is Better Than All The Fluency And Flippancy In The World.
Truth
Regret
World
It Is Easier Taking The Beaten Path Than Making Our Way Over Bogs And Precipices. The Great Difficulty In Philosophy Is To Come To Every Question With A Mind Fresh And Unshackled By Former Theories, Though Strengthened By Exercise And Information.
Philosophy
Exercise
Mind
The Truly Proud Man Knows Neither Superiors Or Inferiors. The First He Does Not Admit Of - The Last He Does Not Concern Himself About.
Men
Doe
Proud
He Who Expects From A Great Name In Politics, In Philosophy, In Art, Equal Greatness In Other Things, Is Little Versed In Human Nature. Our Strength Lies In Our Weakness. The Learned In Books Are Ignorant Of The World. He Who Is Ignorant Of Books Is Often Well Acquainted With Other Things; For Life Is Of The Same Length In The Learned And Unlearned; The Mind Cannot Be Idle; If It Is Not Taken Up With One Thing, It Attends To Another Through Choice Or Necessity; And The Degree Of Previous Capacity In One Class Or Another Is A Mere Lottery.
Art
Lying
Philosophy
The More We Do, The More We Can Do; The More Busy We Are, The More Leisure We Have.
Life
Attitude
Leisure Activities
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.
Passion
Love Life
Attachment
We Imagine That The Admiration Of The Works Of Celebrated Men Has Become Common, Because The Admiration Of Their Names Has Become So.
Men
Names
Common
To Create An Unfavorable Impression, It Is Not Necessary That Certain Things Should Be True, But That They Have Been Said.
Gossip
Should
Said
Gallantry To Women - The Sure Road To Their Favor - Is Nothing But The Appearance Of Extreme Devotion To All Their Wants And Wishes, A Delight In Their Satisfaction, And A Confidence In Yourself As Being Able To Contribute Toward It
Confidence
Courage
Women
Those Only Deserve A Monument Who Do Not Need One; That Is, Who Have Raised Themselves A Monument In The Minds And Memories Of Men.
Memories
Men
Mind
Those People Who Are Always Improving Never Become Great. Greatness Is An Eminence, The Ascent To Which Is Steep And Lofty, And Which A Man Must Seize On At Once By Natural Boldness And Vigor, And Not By Patient, Wary Steps.
Men
Greatness
People
The Great Have Private Feelings Of Their Own, To Which The Interests Of Humanity And Justice Must Curtsy. Their Interests Are So Far From Being The Same As Those Of The Community, That They Are In Direct And Necessary Opposition To Them; Their Power Is At The Expense Of Our Weakness; Their Riches Of Our Poverty; Their Pride Of Our Degradation; Their Splendour Of Our Wretchedness; Their Tyranny Of Our Servitude.
Pride
Justice
Community
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.
Life
Success
Men
It Might Be Argued, That To Be A Knave Is The Gift Of Fortune, But To Play The Fool To Advantage It Is Necessary To Be A Learned Man.
Men
Play
Might
Friendship Is Cemented By Interest, Vanity, Or The Want Of Amusement; It Seldom Implies Esteem, Or Even Mutual Regard.
Friendship
Vanity
Amusement
Hope Is The Best Possession. None Are Completely Wretched But Those Who Are Without Hope. Few Are Reduced So Low As That.
Hope
Lows
Hoping For The Best
The True Barbarian Is He Who Thinks Everything Barbarous But His Own Tastes And Prejudices.
Thinking
Prejudice
Barbarians
They Are The Only Honest Hypocrites, Their Life Is A Voluntary Dream, A Studied Madness.
Dream
Hypocrite
Acting
A Gentleman Is One Who Understands And Shows Every Mark Of Deference To The Claims Of Self-love In Others, And Exacts It In Return From Them.
Self
Gentleman
Return
When You Find Out A Man's Ruling Passion, Beware Of Crossing Him In It.
Passion
Men
Ruling
The Most Violent Friendships Soonest Wear Themselves Out.
Friendship
Emo
Violent
Dandyism Is A Variety Of Genius.
Genius
Dandyism
Variety
If We Are Long Absent From Our Friends, We Forget Them; If We Are Constantly With Them, We Despise Them.
Friends
Long
Forget
The Way To Get On In The World Is To Be Neither More Nor Less Wise, Neither Better Nor Worse Than Your Neighbours.
Wise
World
Way
Walk Groundly, Talk Profoundly, Drink Roundly, Sleep Soundly.
Sleep
Drink
Walks
Love And Joy Are Twins Or Born Of Each Other.
Love
Joy
Twins
We Must Be Doing Something To Be Happy.
Being Happy
The Origin Of All Science Is The Desire To Know Causes, And The Origin Of All False Science Is The Desire To Accept False Causes Rather Than None; Or, Which Is The Same Thing, In The Unwillingness To Acknowledge Our Own Ignorance.
Ignorance
Knowledge
Science
Prejudice Is The Child Of Ignorance.
Education
Children
Ignorance
There Are Few Things In Which We Deceive Ourselves More Than In The Esteem We Profess To Entertain For Our Firends. It Is Little Better Than A Piece Of Quackery. The Truth Is, We Think Of Them As We Please, That Is, As They Please Or Displease Us.
Thinking
Hype
Pieces
Those Who Object To Wit Are Envious Of It.
Envious
Wit
Objects
Every Man Depends On The Quantity Of Sense, Wit, Or Good Manners He Brings Into Society For The Reception He Meets With In It.
Men
Good Man
Society
Persons Of Slender Intellectual Stamina Dread Competition, As Dwarfs Are Afraid Of Being Run Over In The Street.
Running
Stupidity
Competition
What Is Popular Is Not Necessarily Vulgar; And That Which We Try To Rescue From Fatal Obscurity Had In General Much Better Remain Where It Is.
Fashion
Clothes
Trying
An Accomplished Coquette Excites The Passions Of Others, In Proportion As She Feels None Herself.
Passion
Coquette
Coquetry
Whatever Is Placed Beyond The Reach Of Sense And Knowledge, Whatever Is Imperfectly Discerned, The Fancy Pieces Out At Its Leisure; And All But The Present Moment, But The Present Spot, Passion Claims For Its Own, And Brooding Over It With Wings Outspread, Stamps It With An Image Of Itself. Passion Is Lord Of Infinite Space, And Distant Objects Please Because They Border On Its Confines And Are Moulded By Its Touch.
Passion
Wings
Space
That Which Anyone Has Been Long Learning Unwillingly, He Unlearns With Proportional Eagerness And Haste.
Education
Teaching
Long
Fashion Constantly Begins And Ends In The Two Things It Abhors Most, Singularity And Vulgarity.
Fashion
Two
Ends
Popularity Disarms Envy In Well-disposed Minds. Those Are Ever The Most Ready To Do Justice To Others Who Feel That The World Has Done Them Justice. When Success Has Not This Effect In Opening The Mind, It Is A Sign That It Has Been Ill Deserved.
Envy
Justice
Mind
The Worst Old Age Is That Of The Mind.
Time
Mind
Age
What Are The Publications That Succeed? Those That Pretend To Teach The Public That The Persons They Have Been Accustomed Unwittingly To Look Up To As The Lights Of The Earth Are No Better Than Themselves.
Light
Succeed
Looks
Landscape Painting Is The Obvious Resource Of Misanthropy.
Landscape Painting
Misanthropy
Resources
The Greatest Offence Against Virtue Is To Speak Ill Of It.
Speak
Virtue
Ill
A Man's Reputation Is Not In His Own Keeping, But Lies At The Mercy Of The Profligacy Of Others. Calumny Requires No Proof. The Throwing Out [of] Malicious Imputations Against Any Character Leaves A Stain, Which No After-refutation Can Wipe Out. To Create An Unfavorable Impression, It Is Not Necessary That Certain Things Should Be True, But That They Have Been Said. The Imagination Is Of So Delicate A Texture That Even Words Wound It.
Lying
Character
Men
The World Loves To Be Amused By Hollow Professions, To Be Deceived By Flattering Appearances, To Live In A State Of Hallucination; And Can Forgive Everything But The Plain, Downright, Simple, Honest Truth.
Simple
World Love
Forgiving
The More We Do, The More We Can Do.
Life Changing
Leisure Activities
Famous Motivational
We Are All Of Us, More Or Less, The Slaves Of Opinion.
Cooperation
Opinion
Slave
Humanity Is To Be Met With In A Den Of Robbers.
Humanity
Dens
Mets
The Greatest Reverses Of Fortune Are The Most Easily Borne From A Sort Of Dignity Belonging To Them.
Dignity
Fortune
Reverse
There Are Persons Who Are Never Easy Unless They Are Putting Your Books And Papers In Order--that Is, According To Their Notions Of The Matter--and Hide Things Lest They Should Be Lost, Where Neither The Owner Nor Anybody Else Can Find Them. This Is A Sort Of Magpie Faculty. If Anything Is Left Where You Want It, It Is Called Litter. There Is A Pedantry In Housewifery, As Well As In The Gravest Concerns. Abraham Tucker Complained That Whenever His Maid Servant Had Been In His Library, He Could Not See Comfortably To Work Again For Several Days.
Book
Order
Library
The Incentive To Ambition Is The Love Of Power.
Ambition
Incentives
First Impressions Are Often The Truest, As We Find (not Unfrequently) To Our Cost When We Have Been Wheedled Out Of Them By Plausible Professions Or Actions. A Man's Look Is The Work Of Years, It Is Stamped On His Countenance By The Events Of His Whole Life, Nay, More, By The Hand Of Nature, And It Is Not To Be Got Rid Of Easily.
Men
Hands
Years
We Often Choose A Friend As We Do A Mistress - For No Particular Excellence In Themselves, But Merely From Some Circumstance That Flatters Our Self-love.
Self
Excellence
Mistress
Violent Antipathies Are Always Suspicious, And Betray A Secret Affinity.
Betrayal
Secret
Violent
The Book-worm Wraps Himself Up In His Web Of Verbal Generalities, And Sees Only The Glimmering Shadows Of Things Reflected From The Minds Of Others.
Book
Reading
Mind
Any Woman May Act The Part Of A Coquette Successfully Who Has The Reputation Without The Scruples Of Modesty. If A Woman Passes The Bounds Of Propriety For Our Sakes, And Throws Herself Unblushingly At Our Heads, We Conclude It Is Either From A Sudden And Violent Liking, Or From Extraordinary Merit On Our Parts, Either Of Which Is Enough To Turn Any Man's Head Who Has A Single Spark Of Gallantry Or Vanity In His Composition.
Women
Vanity
Coquette
Vice, Like Disease, Floats In The Atmosphere.
Atmosphere
Vices
Disease
Without Life There Can Be No Action — No Objects Of Pursuit — No Restless Desires — No Tormenting Passions. Hence It Is That We Fondly Cling To It — That We Dread Its Termination As The Close, Not Of Enjoyment, But Of Hope.
Hope
Expectations
Enjoyment
Tears May Be Considered As The Natural And Involuntary Resource Of The Mind Overcome By Some Sudden And Violent Emotion, Before Ithas Had Time To Reconcile Its Feelings To The Change In Circumstances: While Laughter May Be Defined To Be The Same Sort Of Convulsive And Involuntary Movement, Occasioned By Mere Sur Prise Or Contrast (in The Absence Of Any More Serious Emotion), Before It Has Time To Reconcile Its Belief To Contradictory Appearances.
Laughter
Feelings
Mind
The Imagination Is Of So Delicate A Texture That Even Words Wound It.
Imagination
Texture
Delicate
The Player Envies Only The Player, The Poet Envies Only The Poet.
Player
Envy
Poet
I Have Known Persons Without A Friend--never Any One Without Some Virtue. The Virtues Of The Former Conspired With Their Vices To Make The Whole World Their Enemies.
Enemy
Vices
World
One Said He Wondered That Leather Was Not Dearer Than Any Other Thing. Being Demanded A Reason: Because, Saith He, It Is More Stood Upon Than Any Other Thing In The World.
World
Reason
Leather
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.
Principles
Inference
Egotism
Wit Is The Salt Of Conversation, Not The Food.
Food
Talking
Salt
The Great Requisite For The Prosperous Management Of Ordinary Business Is The Want Of Imagination.
Imagination
Ordinary
Want
The Definition Of Genius Is That It Acts Unconsciously, And Those Who Have Produced Immortal Works Have Done So Without Knowing How Or Why.
Power
Knowing
Genius
Natural Affection Is A Prejudice; For Though We Have Cause To Love Our Nearest Connections Better Than Others, We Have No Reason To Think Them Better Than Others.
Friendship
Thinking
Connections
Look Up, Laugh Loud, Talk Big, Keep The Color In Your Cheek And The Fire In Your Eye, Adorn Your Person, Maintain Your Health, Your Beauty And Your Animal Spirits.
Happiness
Beauty
Laughter
There Is A Softness And A Harmony In The Words And In The Thought Unparalleled. Of All Conceits It Is Surely The Most Classical. "i Count Only The Hours That Are Serene.".
Harmony
Hours
Conceit
There Is Nothing Good To Be Had In The Country, Or If There Is, They Will Not Let You Have It.
Country
Ifs
Genius Is Native To The Soil Where It Grows — Is Fed By The Air, And Warmed By The Sun — And Is Not A Hot - House Plant Or An Exotic.
Air
Genius
Exotic
A Proud Man Is Satisfied With His Own Good Opinion, And Does Not Seek To Make Converts To It.
Men
Doe
Proud
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.
Love
Ambition
Names
If We Use No Ceremony Towards Others, We Shall Be Treated Without Any. People Are Soon Tired Of Paying Trifling Attentions To Those Who Receive Them With Coldness, And Return Them With Neglect.
Tired
People
Attention
I Like A Person Who Knows His Own Mind And Sticks To It; Who Sees At Once What Is To Be Done In Given Circumstances And Does It. He Does Not Beat About The Bush For Difficulties Or Excuses, But Goes The Shortest And Most Effectual Way To Work To Attain His Own Ends, Or To Accomplish A Useful Object.
Mind
Doe
Done
When I Take Up A Book I Have Read Before, I Know What To Expect; The Satisfaction Is Not Lessened By Being Anticipated. I Shake Hands With, And Look Our Old Tried And Valued Friend In The Face,--compare Notes And Chat The Hour Away.
Book
Reading
Hands
Every Man, In Judging Of Himself, Is His Own Contemporary. He May Feel The Gale Of Popularity, But He Cannot Tell How Long It Will Last. His Opinion Of Himself Wants Distance, Wants Time, Wants Numbers, To Set It Off And Confirm It.
Distance
Men
Numbers
Shall I Faint, Now That I Have Poured Out The Spirit Of My Mind To The World, And Treated Many Subjects With Truth, With Freedom, With Power, Because I Have Been Followed With One Cry Of Abuse Ever Since For Not Being A Government Tool?
Government
Abuse
Mind
A Really Great Man Has Always An Idea Of Something Greater Than Himself.
Men
Ideas
Dignity
He Who Would See Old Hoghton Right Must View It By The Pale Moonlight.
Moon
Views
Moonlight
Like A Rustic At A Fair, We Are Full Of Amazement And Rapture, And Have No Thought Of Going Home, Or That It Will Soon Be Night.
Home
Night
Rustic
Perhaps Propriety Is As Near A Word As Any To Denote The Manners Of The Gentleman; Elegance Is Necessary To The Fine Gentleman; Dignity Is Proper To Noblemen; And Majesty To Kings.
Kings
Gentleman
Noblemen
The Assumption Of Merit Is Easier, Less Embarrassing, And More Effectual Than The Actual Attainment Of It.
Genius
Merit
Assumption
The Best Kind Of Conversation Is That Which May Be Called Thinking Aloud.
Thinking
May
Kind
The Only Impeccable Writers Are Those Who Never Wrote.
Writing
Impeccable
We Talk Little When We Do Not Talk About Ourselves.
Littles
Speakers
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Category
Information