William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 17

Quotes about:

• The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

  William Hazlitt

  Hate, Lost Friendship, World

  'The Plain Speaker' (1826) 'On the Pleasure of Hating'

  7 Copy quote

• Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.

  William Hazlitt

  Heart, Language, Contempt

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Lectures on the English Poets”, p.1

  8 Copy quote

• To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.

  William Hazlitt

  Thinking, Order, Way

  William Hazlitt (1913). “Selections from William Hazlitt”, Boston, New York etc. Ginn [c1913]

  4 Copy quote

• Habit in most cases hardens and encrusts by taking away the keener edge of our sensations: but does it not in others quicken and refine, by giving a mechanical facility and by engrafting an acquired sense?

  William Hazlitt

  Giving, Doe, Habit

  William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

  9 Copy quote

• The youth is better than the old age of friendship.

  William Hazlitt

  Friendship, Age, Youth

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.493

  4 Copy quote

• To-day kings, to-marrow beggars, it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing.

  William Hazlitt

  Kings, Acting, Beggar

  4 Copy quote

• Poetry is only the highest eloquence of passion, the most vivid form of expression that can be given to our conception of anything, whether pleasurable or painful, mean or dignified, delightful or distressing. It is the perfect coincidence of the image and the words with the feeling we have, and of which we cannot get rid in any other way, that gives an instant "satisfaction to the thought." This is equally the origin of wit and fancy, of comedy and tragedy, of the sublime and pathetic.

  William Hazlitt

  Mean, Passion, Writing

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Lectures on the English Poets”, p.9

  5 Copy quote

• The world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors.

  William Hazlitt

  Errors, World, Dread

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays by W. H. Now first collected [and edited] by his son”, p.160

  4 Copy quote

• Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

  William Hazlitt

  Dark, Water, Trying

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1100, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Success, Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1471, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Men, Letters

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.237

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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".

  7 Copy quote

• In what we really understand, we reason but little.

  William Hazlitt

  Understanding, Littles, Reason

  William Hazlitt, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, Charles Lamb (1836). “Literary Remains of the Late William Hazlitt: With Notice of His Life”, p.156

  4 Copy quote

• To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Mind, Speak

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.140

  55 Copy quote

• Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.

  William Hazlitt

  Sports, Art, Anchors

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.250

  4 Copy quote

• Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Religious, Time, Pain

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.69

  4 Copy quote

• Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not, let your liberality keep pace with their good fortune. Envy no one, and you need envy no one.

  William Hazlitt

  Believe, Envy, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.

  William Hazlitt

  Fear Of Death, Ends, Cures

  Table Talk "On the Fear of Death" (1822)

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  William Hazlitt

  Confidence, Courage, Women

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.124

  12 Copy quote

• Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

  William Hazlitt

  Happiness, Action, Indolence

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1029, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

  William Hazlitt

  Kindness, Wish, Favors

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

  8 Copy quote

• No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Thinking, Self

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.127

  4 Copy quote

• 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”

  10 Copy quote

Page 17 of 25

First

← Prev

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin