Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.
William HazlittLanguages happily restrict the mind to what is of its own native growth and fitted for it, as rivers and mountains bond countries; or the empire of learning, as well as states, would become unwieldy and overgrown.
William HazlittThe insolence of the vulgar is in proportion to their ignorance. They treat everything with contempt which they do not understand.
William HazlittTo get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.
William HazlittThere 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.
William Hazlitt