Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A hypocrite is someone who claims to hold beliefs they do not truly embrace, while it's acceptable to struggle with one's actions.
William Hazlitt's quote highlights the concept of hypocrisy, emphasizing that true hypocrisy arises not from failing to live up to one's ideals but from pretending to believe in something one does not genuinely uphold. It suggests that a person who may not act upon all their beliefs can still be more authentic than someone who outwardly professes beliefs they do not possess internally.
Themes
HypocrisyBeliefsAuthenticityIntegrityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used when discussing ethical behavior in a classroom setting.
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
It is this idea 'decency' should be attached to wealth -and 'indecency'' to poverty - that forms the core of one strand of skeptical complaint against the modern status-ideal. Why should failure to make money be taken as a sign of an unconditionally flawed human being rather than of a fiasco in one particular area if the far larger, more multifaceted, project of leading a good life? Why should both wealth and poverty be read as the predominant guides to an individual's morals ?
Alain De BottonRead
Faith is not a blind, irrational conviction. In order to believe, we must know what we believe, and the grounds on which our faith rests.
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Oh thrice fools are we who like new-born princes weeping in the cradle know not that there is a kingdom before them then let our Lord's sweet hand square us and hammer us and strike off the knots of pride self-love and world-worship and infidelity that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father's house.
Samuel RutherfordRead
The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires.
Soren KierkegaardRead
With pop stars or film stars, we become the object of people's self-definition, as well as the object of sexual definition.
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I thought there's something to be said for honor in this world where there doesn't seem to be any honor left. I thought that maybe happiness wasn't really anything more than the knowledge of a life well spent, in spite of whatever immediate discomfort you had to undergo, and that if a life well spent meant compromises and conciliations and reconciliations, and suffering at the hands of the person you love, well then better that than live without honor.
William StyronRead