William Hazlitt Quotes on Mind (24 Quotes)

The way to secure success, is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it the surest hindrance to it is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the discernment of the public.

I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.

He is to the great poet, what an excellent mimic is to a great actor. There is no determinate impression left on the mind by reading his poetry. . . . A great mind is one that moulds the minds of others.

It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things.

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.

Art is the microscope of the mind, which sharpens the wit as the other does the sight, and converts every object into a little universe in itself.

The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.

The accomplishments of the body are obvious and clear to all those of the mind are recondite and doubtful, and therefore grudgingly acknowledged, or held up as the sport of prejudice, spite, and folly.

If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will. . .

We quaff the cup of life with eager haste without draining it, instead of which it only overflows the brim --objects press around us, filling the mind with their magnitude and with the throng of desires that wait upon them. . .

His thoughts did not seem to come with labour and effort but as if borne on gusts of genius, and as if the wings of his imagination lifted him off from his feet. . . . His mind was clothed with wings and raised on them, he lifted philosophy to heaven.

Sincerity has to do with the connect between our words and thoughts, and not between our belief and actions.

Actors are the only honest hypocrites. Their life is a voluntary dream and the height of their ambition is to be beside themselves. They wear the livery of other men's fortunes their very thoughts are not their own.

What a fine lesson is conveyed to the mind -- to take no note of time but by its benefits, to watch only for the smiles and neglect the frowns of fate, to compose our lives of bright and gentle moments, turning always to the sunny side of things, and letting the rest slip for our imaginations, unheeded or forgotten How different from the common art of self-tormenting

He is a man of capacity who possesses considerable intellectual riches while he is a man of genius who finds out a vein of new ore. Originality is the seeing nature differently from others, and yet as it is in itself. It is not singularity or affectation, but the discovery of new and valuable truth. All the world do not see the whole meaning of any object they have been looking at. Habit blinds them to some things shortsightedness to others. Every mind is not a gauge and measure of truth. Nature has her surface and her dark recesses. She is deep, obscure, and infinite. It is only minds on whom she makes her fullest impressions that can penetrate her shrine or unveil her Holy of Holies. It is only those whom she has filled with her spirit that have the boldness or the power to reveal her mysteries to others.

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

There are persons who cannot make friends. Who are they Those who cannot be friends. It is not the want of understanding or good nature, of entertaining or useful qualities, that you complain of on the contrary, they have probably many points of attraction but they have one that neutralizes all these --they care nothing about you, and are neither the better nor worse for what you think of them. They manifest no joy at your approach and when you leave them, it is with a feeling that they can do just as well without you. This is not sullenness, nor indifference, nor absence of mind but they are intent solely on their own thoughts, and you are merely one of the subjects they exercise them upon. They live in society as in a solitude.

There is a softness and a harmony in the words and in the thought unparalleled. Of all conceits it is surely the most classical. I count only the hours that are serene.

A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.

Women have often more of what is called good sense then men. They have fewer pretensions are less implicated in theories and judge of objects more from their immediate and involuntary impression on the mind, and, therefore, more truly and naturally.

The worst old age is that of the mind.

He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in mind.

There is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.

Persons without education certainly do not want either acuteness or strength of mind in what concerns themselves, or in things immediately within their observation but they have no power of abstraction, no general standard of taste, or scale of opinion. They see their objects always near, and never in the horizon. Hence arises that egotism which has been remarked as the characteristic of self-taught men.