Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We often misrepresent our true feelings towards our friends, believing we respect them more than we actually do.
In this quote, William Hazlitt points out the self-deception we engage in regarding our feelings for friends. He suggests that our esteem for friends is often superficial, influenced by their actions and our perceptions, rather than being a genuine and stable regard for them.
Themes
FriendshipSelf-DeceptionEsteemPerceptionRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the nature of true friendship, one could reference Hazlitt's insights into self-deception.
More from William Hazlitt
All quotes →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
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
William HazlittRead
One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.
William HazlittRead
Similar quotes
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I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.
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Here's to us, who's like us Damn few, and they're all dead.
Robert BurnsRead
A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead