QuoteProject
Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.
William Hazlitt
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights how many people can criticize or harm others, but only a few are willing to act on such tendencies.

William Hazlitt's quote reflects on the nature of criticism and negativity within society. It suggests that while everyone has the capability to engage in harmful behavior or speak ill of others, only a minority are inclined to do so. This idea prompts us to consider the motivations behind our actions and the relative rarity of those who choose to rise above petty behaviors.

Themes

CriticismBehaviorInclinationCrowdNegativity

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech about the importance of positivity in the workplace, this quote can be used to illustrate how negativity can be prevalent but is often not acted upon.

More from William Hazlitt

Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
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.
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

The failure to cultivate virtue, the failure to examine and analyze what I have learned, the inability to move toward righteousness after being shown the way, the inability to correct my faults-these are the causes of my grief.
ConfuciusRead
Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.
Haruki MurakamiRead
He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers
ZoroasterRead
The goal of the Transcendental Meditation technique is the state of enlightenment. This means we experience that inner calmness, that quiet state of least excitation, even when we are dynamically busy.
Maharishi Mahesh YogiRead
I don't have any problem understanding why people flunk out of college or quit their jobs or cheat on each other or break the law or spray-paint walls. A little bit outside of things is where some people feel each other. We do it to replace the frame of family. We do it to erase and remake our origins in their own images. To say, I too was here.
Lidia YuknavitchRead
If you knew that your life was merely a phase or short, short segment of your entire existence, how would you live? Knowing nothing 'real' was at risk, what would you do? You'd live a gigantic, bold, fun, dazzling life. You know you would. That's what the ghosts want us to do - all the exciting things they no longer can.
Chuck PalahniukRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.