William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 16

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• What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if no one know there was such a person, and you wished no one to know it: it is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it; to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it.

  William Hazlitt

  Mean, Thoughtful, Self

  William Hazlitt (1821). “Table-talk: Or Original Essays”, p.213

  7 Copy quote

• We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self-will, more than of reason or even of self-interest. Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Fall, Passion

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

  10 Copy quote

• Good temper is an estate for life.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Estates, Temper

  William Hazlitt (1848). “The Miscellaneous Works”

  7 Copy quote

• Vice, like disease, floats in the atmosphere.

  William Hazlitt

  Atmosphere, Vices, Disease

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1484, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.

  William Hazlitt

  Character, Personality, Merit

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

  7 Copy quote

• Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.

  William Hazlitt

  Women, Vanity, Coquette

  4 Copy quote

• Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.

  William Hazlitt

  Wise, Men, Fool

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1470, Delphi Classics

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• Tears may be considered as the natural and involuntary resource of the mind overcome by some sudden and violent emotion, before ithas had time to reconcile its feelings to the change in circumstances: while laughter may be defined to be the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere sur prise or contrast (in the absence of any more serious emotion), before it has time to reconcile its belief to contradictory appearances.

  William Hazlitt

  Laughter, Feelings, Mind

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Lectures on the English Comic Writers”, p.2

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• Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Love Life, Attachment

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.170, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.

  William Hazlitt

  Integrity, Men, Ideas

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.700, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• A man in love prefers his passion to every other consideration, and is fonder of his mistress than he is of virtue. Should she prove vicious, she makes vice lovely in his eyes.

  William Hazlitt

  Love, Passion, Eye

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1510, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• The essence of poetry is will and passion.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Essence, Poetry Is

  William Hazlitt (1836). “Literary Remains of the Late William Hazlitt: With a Notice of His Life”, p.76

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• When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.

  William Hazlitt

  Love, Sweet, Vanity

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.507

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• They are, as it were, train-bearers in the pageant of life, and hold a glass up to humanity, frailer than itself. We see ourselves at second-hand in them: they show us all that we are, all that we wish to be, and all that we dread to be. What brings the resemblance nearer is, that, as they imitate us, we, in our turn, imitate them. There is no class of society whom so many persons regard with affection as actors.

  William Hazlitt

  Life, Glasses, Hands

  52 Copy quote

• It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.

  William Hazlitt

  Optimistic, Different, World

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1473, Delphi Classics

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• You will hear more good things on the outside of a stagecoach from London to Oxford than if you were to pass a twelvemonth with the undergraduates, or heads of colleges, of that famous university.

  William Hazlitt

  College, Oxford, London

  'Table Talk' vol. 1 (1821) 'The Ignorance of the Learned'

  18 Copy quote

• Books wind into the heart.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Heart, Wind

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

  William Hazlitt

  Kings, Acting, Beggar

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• Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.

  William Hazlitt

  Friendship, Breakup, Promise

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1873, Delphi Classics

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• Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.

  William Hazlitt

  Gratitude, Punishment, Body

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1292, Delphi Classics

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• Virtue steals, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.

  William Hazlitt

  Heart, Secret, Vices

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.518

  7 Copy quote

• There are some persons who never succeed from being too indolent to undertake anything; and others who regularly fail, because the instant they find success in their power, they grow indifferent, and give over the attempt.

  William Hazlitt

  Giving, Succeed, Failing

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1518, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice; but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue.

  William Hazlitt

  Punishment, Vices, May

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

  4 Copy quote

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