William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 16

Quotes about:

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.

  William Hazlitt

  Temper, Features

  "The Complete Works of William Hazlitt".

  7 Copy quote

• There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.

  William Hazlitt

  Wise, Men, Idiot

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.492

  11 Copy quote

• The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.

  William Hazlitt

  Positive, Running, Men

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.37

  7 Copy quote

• A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.

  William Hazlitt

  Advantage, Should, Graves

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.137

  7 Copy quote

• No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Perfection, Stealth, Approach

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays by W. H. Now first collected [and edited] by his son”, p.255

  16 Copy quote

• That which is not, shall never be; that which is, shall never cease to be. To the wise, these truths are self-evident.

  William Hazlitt

  Wise, Self, Evident

  4 Copy quote

• Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.

  William Hazlitt

  Idols, May, Admiration

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

  9 Copy quote

• To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.

  William Hazlitt

  Birthday, Time, Age

  7 Copy quote

• Dandyism is a variety of genius.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Dandyism, Variety

  7 Copy quote

• I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.

  William Hazlitt

  Friendship, Faults

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1921, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• No young man ever thinks he shall die.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Thinking, Young

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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• Conceit is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.

  William Hazlitt

  Vanity, Admiration, Driven

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1481, Delphi Classics

  9 Copy quote

• No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Science, Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.261, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as strength. There is a degree of folly and meanness which we cannot calculate upon, and by which we are as much liable to be foiled as by the greatest ability or courage.

  William Hazlitt

  Weakness, Degrees, Liable

  William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1902). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft. Liber amoris. Characteristics”

  7 Copy quote

• 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

• 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

  7 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 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

• 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

Page 16 of 25

First

← Prev

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin