Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.
Interpretation
What this quote means
End a friendship that has lost its essence rather than pretending it still exists.
This quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing when a friendship has deteriorated beyond repair. Rather than clinging to a superficial bond, it encourages individuals to part ways on amicable terms while the relationship still holds some meaning, rather than continuing to mock the friendship with false pretenses.
Themes
FriendshipPartingHonestyRelationshipsMoving On
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of genuine relationships, one could use this quote to highlight the need for authenticity.
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
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A light has dawned for me: I need companions, living ones, not dead companions and corpses which I carry with me wherever I wish. But I need living companions who follow me because they want to follow themselves- and who want to go where I want to go.
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...of two simple men I saw today on the pier in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends, the one to remain hung on the other's neck and passionately kissed him. While the one to depart tightly pressed the one to remain in his arms.
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Sharing our depressions felt like having survived a war. The experience bonds you to the other person for life.
Art BuchwaldRead