William Hazlitt Quotes on Society & Civilization (7 Quotes)

An excess of modesty is in fact an excess of pride, and more hurtful to the individual, and less advantageous to society, than the grossest and most unblushing vanity.

When a person dies who does any one thing better than anyone else in the world, which so many others are trying to do well, it leaves a gap in society.

If the schemes of Utopians could be realized, the tone of society would be changed from what it is, into a sort of insipid high life. There could be no fine tragedies written nor would there be any pleasure in seeing them. We tend to this conclusion already with the progress of civilization.

So society, when out of order, which it is whenever the interests of the many are regularly and outrageously sacrificed to those of the few, must be repaired, and either a reform or a revolution cleanse its corruptions and renew its elasticity.

The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.

I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.

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.