William Hazlitt Quotes About Genius

Quotes about: Genius

• Rules and models destroy genius and art.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Freedom, Teaching

  'Sketches and Essays' (1839) 'On Taste'

• People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.

  William Hazlitt

  People, Genius, Vocation

• The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

  William Hazlitt

  Power, Knowing, Genius

  William Hazlitt (1857). “The Miscellaneous Works of William Hazlitt”, p.38

• 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

• The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Merit, Assumption

• 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 -the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.

  William Hazlitt

  Names, Ideas, Numbers

• Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.

  William Hazlitt

  Humanity, Intelligence, Genius

  William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”, p.141

• Genius is native to the soil where it grows — is fed by the air, and warmed by the sun — and is not a hot - house plant or an exotic.

  William Hazlitt

  Air, Genius, Exotic

  "The Complete Works of William Hazlitt".

• If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.

  William Hazlitt

  Reading, Intelligence, Wish

  William Hazlitt (1924). “Essays”

• 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'

• Dandyism is a variety of genius.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Dandyism, Variety

• His hypothesis goes to this - to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Running, Believe, Men

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners”

• Dandyism is a species of genius.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Dandyism, Species

• Genius only leaves behind it the monuments of its strength.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Behinds, Monument

  William Hazlitt (1870). “The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.162

• Men of the greatest genius are not always the most prodigal of their encomiums. But then it is when their range of power is confined, and they have in fact little perception, except of their own particular kind of excellence.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Perception, Excellence

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1465, Delphi Classics

• There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Moving, Men

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.35

• Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Talent, Capacity

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