William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 17

Quotes about:

• 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

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• The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.

  William Hazlitt

  Critics, Composition, Originals

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1498, Delphi Classics

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• We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

  William Hazlitt

  Self, Excellence, Mistress

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

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• 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'

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• 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

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• Whatever is placed beyond the reach of sense and knowledge, whatever is imperfectly discerned, the fancy pieces out at its leisure; and all but the present moment, but the present spot, passion claims for its own, and brooding over it with wings outspread, stamps it with an image of itself. Passion is lord of infinite space, and distant objects please because they border on its confines and are moulded by its touch.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Wings, Space

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1283, Delphi Classics

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• There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.

  William Hazlitt

  Country, Ifs

  'The Round Table' (1817) 'Observations on Mr Wordsworth's Poem 'The Excursion"

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• We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

  William Hazlitt

  Stories, May, Willing

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• A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Doe, Proud

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.41

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• His hypothesis goes to this - to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Running, Believe, Men

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners”

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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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• The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.

  William Hazlitt

  Thinking, Quality, Complaining

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

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• A certain excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good-humor will often make more enemies than the most deliberate spite and ill-nature, which is on its guard, and strikes with caution and safety.

  William Hazlitt

  Animal, Safety, Enemy

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• Languages happily restrict the mind to what is of its own native growth and fitted for it, as rivers and mountains bond countries; or the empire of learning, as well as states, would become unwieldy and overgrown.

  William Hazlitt

  Country, Rivers, Growth

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• The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.

  William Hazlitt

  Death, Causes, Youth

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• 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

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• 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

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• Refinement creates beauty everywhere. It is the grossness of the spectator that discovers anything like grossness in the object.

  William Hazlitt

  Beauty Everywhere, Refinement, Spectators

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• 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

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• It has been the resolution of mankind in all ages of the world. No people, no age, ever threw away the fruits of past wisdom, or the enjoyment of present blessings, for visionary schemes of ideal perfection. It is the knowledge of the past, the actual infliction of the present, that has produced all changes, all innovations, and all improvements - not (as is pretended) the chimerical anticipation of possible advantages, but the intolerable pressure of long-established, notorious, aggravated, and growing abuses.

  William Hazlitt

  Blessing, Past, Long

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1176, Delphi Classics

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• If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.

  William Hazlitt

  Friends, Long, Forget

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

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• To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.

  William Hazlitt

  Writing, Choices, Style

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1270, Delphi Classics

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• 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

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• Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

  William Hazlitt

  Genius, Talent, Capacity

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• The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation.

  William Hazlitt

  Foul, Nations

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1248, Delphi Classics

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