William Hazlitt Quotes (345 Quotes)


    We may, with instruction and opportunity mend our manners, or else alter for the worse, -- as the flesh and fortune shall serve but the character, the internal, original bias, remains always the same, true to itself to the very last.

    Give me the clear blue sky above my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner - and then to thinking It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths.

    A man knows his companion in a long journey and a little inn.

    I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.

    Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others, who feel that the world has done them justice.



    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.

    Honesty is one part eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.

    Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.

    Want of principle is power. Truth and honesty set a limit to our efforts, which impudence and hypocrisy easily overleap.

    There is no force but argument in the case, and it is reason, not the will of another, that gives the law.

    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.

    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.

    In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull if you talk, you are thought impertinent or arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.

    Good temper is one of the greatest preservers of the features.

    I am always afraid of a fool one cannot be sure he is not a knave.

    To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.

    Gallantry to women the sure road to their favor is nothing but the appearance of extreme devotion to all their wants and wishes, a delight in their satisfaction, and a confidence in yourself as being able to contribute toward it.

    The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this The one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.

    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.


    There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.

    There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.

    The most violent friendships soonest wear themselves out.

    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.

    Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes. . .

    One would imagine that books were, like women, the worse for being old that they open their leaves more cordially that the spirit of enjoyment wears out with the spirit of novelty and that after a certain age, it is high time to put them on the s


    He writes as fast as they can read, and he does not write himself down.

    A man's look is the work of years it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.

    The temple of fame stands upon the grave the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men.

    Never anticipate evils or, because you cannot have things exactly as you wish, make them out worse than they are, through mere spite and willfulness.

    What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it it is as if no one know there was such a person, and you wished no one to know it it is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it.

    We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.

    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 way to procure insults is to submit to them a man meets with no more respect than he exacts.

    Mankind are an incorrigible race. Give them but bugbears and idols --it is all that they ask the distinctions of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, are worse than indifferent to them.

    It is well that there is no one without a fault for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to a different species.

    When a man is dead, they put money in his coffin, erect monuments to his memory, and celebrate the anniversary of his birthday in set speeches. Would they take any notice of him if he were living No.

    Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune.

    Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly overvalued by others.

    The majority, compose them how you will, are a herd, and not a very nice one.

    They are the only honest hypocrites, their life is a voluntary dream, a studied madness.

    He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.

    The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense

    The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test: for it is on that on which our success in life depends.

    The greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them.

    Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.

    To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.

    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.


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