Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often believe they are unique and exempt from common moral standards.
This quote by William Hazlitt suggests that every individual tends to see themselves as a special case, believing that their circumstances or reasoning set them apart from the typical ethical guidelines that govern others. It highlights a common human tendency to rationalize our actions and choices, implying that we often excuse ourselves from the moral limitations we impose on others.
Themes
MoralityExceptionOpinionIndividualismEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about personal ethics, one might quote Hazlitt to emphasize the subjective nature of moral standards.
More from William Hazlitt
All quotes βThe 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.
William HazlittRead
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
William HazlittRead
We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
William HazlittRead
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.
William HazlittRead
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
William HazlittRead
Similar quotes
So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?
Anthony DoerrRead
Though I was careful never to mention it, I began to see a new dimension in everything that happened.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
If you tell yourself a sad story, the body reacts to that. And if you tell yourself a self-aggrandizing story, the body feels puffed up, confident. But when you realize itβs all stories, there can be a vast waking up out of the mind, out of the dream. You donβt awaken, what has eternally been awake realizes itself. That which is eternally awake is what you are.
AdyashantiRead
The idea that there is one kind of African is of course ridiculous. Sometimes African entrepreneurs want to kill you because you are saying public health is the priority, not roads. Of course they are right to press for that issue, but so are we right, I believe, to argue for example that millions of children could and should be vaccinated.
BonoRead
The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie.
Ann LandersRead
I am entitled to say, if I like, that awareness exists in all the individual creatures on the planet-worms, sea urchins, gnats, whales, subhuman primates, superprimate humans, the lot. I can say this because we do not know what we are talking about: consciousness is so much a total mystery for our own species that we cannot begin to guess about its existence in others.
Lewis ThomasRead