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William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 8

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

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

William Hazlitt
Prejudice, Able, Way
William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays by W. H. Now first collected [and edited] by his son”, p.98

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.

William Hazlitt
Happiness, Beauty, Laughter
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.161

I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.

William Hazlitt
Inspirational, Mind, Doe

The expression of a gentleman's face is not so much that of refinement, as of flexibility, not of sensibility and enthusiasm as of indifference; it argues presence of mind rather than enlargement of ideas.

William Hazlitt
Presence Of Mind, Expression, Ideas

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.

William Hazlitt
Inspirational, Energy, Resistance
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1485, Delphi Classics

A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.

William Hazlitt
Men, Ideas, Dignity
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1106, Delphi Classics

Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable.

William Hazlitt
Names, Argument, Eloquence
William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.219

I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth... I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them.

William Hazlitt
Hate, Writing, Space
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1272, Delphi Classics

With women, the great business of life is love; and they generally make a mistake in it. They consult neither the heart nor the head, but are led away by mere humour and fancy. If instead of a companion for life, they had to choose a partner in a country-dance or to trifle away an hour with, their mode of calculation would be right. They tie their true-lover's knot with idle, thoughtless haste, while the institutions of society render it indissoluble.

William Hazlitt
Country, Mistake, Women
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.111

A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence; but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.

William Hazlitt
Men, Ignorant, Excellence
William Hazlitt (2005). “The Fight and Other Writings”, p.464, Penguin UK

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.

William Hazlitt
Life, Greatness, Men
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1105, Delphi Classics

To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to, part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love.

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

No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others; and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he.

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

Abuse is an indirect species of homage.

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

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. Art may be said to draw aside the veil from nature. To those who are perfectly unskilled in the practice, unimbued with the principles of art, most objects present only a confused mass.

William Hazlitt
Art, Confused, Sight
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.249, Delphi Classics

The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.

William Hazlitt
Thinking, May, Kind
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1488, Delphi Classics

Envy is the deformed and distorted offspring of egotism; and when we reflect on the strange and disproportioned character of the parent, we cannot wonder at the perversity and waywardness of the child.

William Hazlitt
Children, Character, Envy

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.

He who is as faithful to his principles as he is to himself is the true partisan.

William Hazlitt
Faithful, Principles, Partisanship
William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.272

We can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home!

William Hazlitt
Life, Travel, Home
"The Essential Hazlitt".

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.

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

By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns; so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.

William Hazlitt
Revenge, Accomplishment, Suffering
William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.495

He who lives wisely to himself and his own heart looks at the busy world through the loopholes of retreat, and does not want to mingle in the fray.

William Hazlitt
Retirement, Heart, World
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1112, Delphi Classics

It is easier taking the beaten path than making our way over bogs and precipices. The great difficulty in philosophy is to come to every question with a mind fresh and unshackled by former theories, though strengthened by exercise and information.

William Hazlitt
Philosophy, Exercise, Mind
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2095, Delphi Classics

Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.

William Hazlitt
Teacher, Laughter, Opportunity
William Hazlitt (2004). “On the Pleasure of Hating”, p.31, Penguin UK

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