Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Old friendships can become unfulfilling and unpleasant over time.
This quote compares old friendships to repeatedly served cold meats, suggesting that, like stale food, these relationships lose their initial warmth and joy. As time goes on, what once provided comfort can become distasteful and leave one feeling unsettled, highlighting the natural evolution and sometimes decline of friendships as people change.
Themes
FriendshipRelationshipsChangeComfortDiscontent
In practice
Example use cases
During a reunion speech, reflecting on how friendships have changed over the years.
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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Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time.
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I dedicate the merit of the occasion to all beings. This gesture of universal friendship has been likened to a drop of fresh spring water. If we put it on a rock in the sunshine, it will soon evaporate. If we put it in the ocean, however, it will never be lost. Thus the wish is made that we not keep the teachings to ourselves but to use them to benefit others.
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I don't have many friends; I'm very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated and I've never been really close to anyone.
Anthony HopkinsRead