William Hazlitt Quotes About Virtue

Quotes about: Virtue

• The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to ranking spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness.

  William Hazlitt

  Hate, Heart, Land

  "The Pope is a Model Politician" by Joe Keohane, www.esquire.com. October 22, 2013.

• Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.

  William Hazlitt

  Family, Running, Blood

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2020, Delphi Classics

• Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.

  William Hazlitt

  Character, Personality, Merit

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1464, Delphi Classics

• As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Lying, Hypocrisy

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1319, Delphi Classics

• Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.

  William Hazlitt

  Acceptance, Men, May

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1468, Delphi Classics

• True friendship is self-love at second hand; where, as in a flattering mirror we may see our virtues magnified and our errors softened, and where we may fancy our opinion of ourselves confirmed by an impartial and faithful witness.

  William Hazlitt

  True Friend, Real, Errors

  William Hazlitt (1870). “The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.114

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

  William Hazlitt

  Real, Humility, Modesty

  William Hazlitt (1848). “The Miscellaneous Works”, p.108

• To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

  William Hazlitt

  Thinking, Wish, Virtue

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.89

• Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit -- or a mask. . . . The foregoing maxim shows the difference between truth and sarcasm.

  William Hazlitt

  Sarcasm, Men, Differences

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.527

• There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.

  William Hazlitt

  Hypocrisy, Vices, Compliment

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1498, Delphi Classics

• A man in love prefers his passion to every other consideration, and is fonder of his mistress than he is of virtue. Should she prove vicious, she makes vice lovely in his eyes.

  William Hazlitt

  Love, Passion, Eye

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1510, Delphi Classics

• I have known persons without a friend--never any one without some virtue. The virtues of the former conspired with their vices to make the whole world their enemies.

  William Hazlitt

  Enemy, Vices, World

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1473, Delphi Classics

• Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit--or a mask.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Vices, Virtue

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.527

• The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice; but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue.

  William Hazlitt

  Punishment, Vices, May

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.55

• Virtue steals, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.

  William Hazlitt

  Heart, Secret, Vices

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.518

• Death cancels everything but truth; and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It is a sort of natural canonization.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Genius, Virtue

  'The Spirit of the Age' (1825) 'Lord Byron'

• There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

  William Hazlitt

  Vices, Heroism, Virtue

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.39

• The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.

  William Hazlitt

  Honesty, People, Office

  "Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims". Book by William Hazlitt. No. 43, 1823.

• The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Speak, Virtue, Ill

  'Sketches and Essays' (1839) 'On Cant and Hypocrisy'

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

  William Hazlitt

  Race, Ridiculous, Virtue

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.486

• The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Law, Public Opinion

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.475

• We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

  William Hazlitt

  Opportunity, Giving, Faults

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

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