"A man comes into a room, and on his first entering, declares without preface or ceremony his contempt for poetry.Are we therefore to conclude him a greater genius than Homer? No: but by this cavalier opinion he assumes a certain natural ascendancy over those who admire poetry. To look down upon anything seemingly implies a greater elevation and enlargement of view than to look up to it...The want of any external sense or organ is an acknowledged defect and infirmity: the want of an internal sense or faculty is equally so, though our self-love contrives to give a diferent turn to it. We mortify others by throwing cold water on that in which they have an advantage over us, or stagger their opinion of an excellence which is not of self-evident or absolute utility, and lessen its supposed value, by limiting the universality of a taste for it...These spiteful allusions are most apt to proceed from disappointed vanity, and an apprehension that justice is not done to ourselves. Those who really excel and are allowed to excel in anything have no excuse for trying to gain a reputation by undermining the pretentions of others; they stand on their own ground: and do not need the aid of invidious comparisons. Besides, the consciousness of an excellence produces a fondness for, a faith in it...A fool takes no interest in anything; or if he does, it is better to be a fool, than a wise man, whose only pleasure is to disparage the pursuits and occupations of others, and out of ignorance or prejudice to condemn them, merely because they are not his."

-William Hazlitt, "On Egotism" (May, 1821)