William Hazlitt Quotes About Opinions

Quotes about: Opinions

• People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.

  William Hazlitt

  Talking, People, Sake

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.38

• No really great man ever thought himself so.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Opinion, Great Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1905, Delphi Classics

• Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Ordinary, Ethics

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.109

• Common sense, to most people, is nothing more than their own opinions.

  William Hazlitt

  People, Common Sense, Community

• Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Public Opinion, Unjust, Opinion

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1476, Delphi Classics

• Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Silence, Quality

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

• We prefer ourselves to others, only because we a have more intimate consciousness and confirmed opinion of our own claims and merits than of any other person's.

  William Hazlitt

  Vanity, Merit, Opinion

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1466, Delphi Classics

• A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Doe, Proud

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.41

• A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Character, Men

  William Hazlitt (1819). “Political essays, with sketches of public characters”, p.289

• 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

• You shall yourself be judge. Reason, with most people, means their own opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Mean, People, Judging

  William Hazlitt (1870). “The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.262

• 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.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Self, Mind

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.175, Delphi Classics

• Every man, in judging of himself, is his own contemporary. He may feel the gale of popularity, but he cannot tell how long it will last. His opinion of himself wants distance, wants time, wants numbers, to set it off and confirm it.

  William Hazlitt

  Distance, Men, Numbers

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.38

• The public is so in awe of its own opinion that it never dares to form any, but catches up the first idle rumour, lest it should be behindhand in its judgment, and echoes it till it is deafened with the sound of its own voice.

  William Hazlitt

  Voice, Echoes, Firsts

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1118, Delphi Classics

• We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Cooperation, Opinion, Slave

  William Hazlitt (1822). “Political Essays: With Sketches of Public Characters”, p.276

• The mind revolts against certain opinions, as the stomach rejects certain foods.

  William Hazlitt

  Mind, Opinion, Stomach

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.56

• Men will die for an opinion as soon as for anything else.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Opinion, Dies

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1482, Delphi Classics

• Vanity does not refer to the opinion a man entertains of himself, but to that which he wishes others to entertain of him.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Vanity, Wish

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1480, Delphi Classics

• 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.

  William Hazlitt

  Perfection, Mind, Determined

• We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.

  William Hazlitt

  Self, Giving, Judging

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.452

• The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Sacrifice, Vanity, Self

  William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1904). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Fugitive writings”

• 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

• Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.

  William Hazlitt

  Lying, Faces, Opinion

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.487

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