William Hazlitt Quotes About Reading

Quotes about: Reading

• Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

  William Hazlitt

  Happiness, Teacher, Attitude

  William Hazlitt (1889). “William Hazlitt, Essayist and Critic: Selections from His Writings with a Memoir, Biographical and Critical”

• If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Reading, Years

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.1

• So I have loitered my life away, reading books, looking at pictures, going to plays, hearing, thinking, writing on what pleased me best. I have wanted only one thing to make me happy, but wanting that have wanted everything.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Book, Reading

  'Literary Remains' (1836) 'My First Acquaintance with Poets'

• A felon could plead "benefit of clergy" and be saved by [reading aloud] what was aptly enough termed the "neck verse", which was very usually the Miserere mei of Psalm 51.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Reading, Benefits

• 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”

• The book-worm wraps himself up in his web of verbal generalities, and sees only the glimmering shadows of things reflected from the minds of others.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Reading, Mind

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.46

• By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.

  William Hazlitt

  Hurt, Reading, Flames

  William Hazlitt, Herschel Moreland Sikes, William Hallam Bonner, Gerald Lahey (1979). “The Letters of William Hazlitt”, p.224, Springer

• When I take up a book I have read before, I know what to expect; the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated. I shake hands with, and look our old tried and valued friend in the face,--compare notes and chat the hour away.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Reading, Hands

• The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.

  William Hazlitt

  Reading, Book, Life Is

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1914, Delphi Classics

• We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth of facts in the other.

  William Hazlitt

  Reading, Romance, Facts

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1501, Delphi Classics

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin