William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 20

Quotes about:

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• Walk groundly, talk profoundly, drink roundly, sleep soundly.

  William Hazlitt

  Sleep, Drink, Walks

  4 Copy quote

• 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"

  4 Copy quote

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

  William Hazlitt

  Stories, May, Willing

  4 Copy quote

• Horus non numero nisi serenas (I count only the sunny hours).

  William Hazlitt

  Time, Sunny, Hours

  27 Copy quote

• Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.

  William Hazlitt

  Mind, Dresses, Body

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.43

  4 Copy quote

• It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play.

  William Hazlitt

  Drama, Play, Remarkable

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

  4 Copy quote

• It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary inference is the fair one.

  William Hazlitt

  Principles, Inference, Egotism

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1492, Delphi Classics

  6 Copy quote

• To speak highly of one with whom we are intimate is a species of egotism. Our modesty as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on this subject.

  William Hazlitt

  Modesty, Speak, Intimate

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• Envy is the most universal passion. We only pride ourselves on the qualities we possess, or think we possess; but we envy the pretensions we have, and those which we have not, and do not even wish for. We envy the greatest qualities and every trifling advantage. We envy the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of superiority. We envy folly and conceit; nay, we go so far as to envy whatever confers distinction of notoriety, even vice and infamy.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Pride, Thinking

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1466, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• The youth is better than the old age of friendship.

  William Hazlitt

  Friendship, Age, Youth

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

  4 Copy quote

• Habit in most cases hardens and encrusts by taking away the keener edge of our sensations: but does it not in others quicken and refine, by giving a mechanical facility and by engrafting an acquired sense?

  William Hazlitt

  Giving, Doe, Habit

  William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

  9 Copy quote

• Habit is necessary to give power.

  William Hazlitt

  Giving, Habit

  William Hazlitt (1870). “The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.432

  7 Copy quote

• Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.

  William Hazlitt

  Lying, Faces, Opinion

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

  4 Copy quote

• Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.

  William Hazlitt

  Our Words, Belief, Action

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.27

  7 Copy quote

• Love at first sight is only realizing an imagination that has always haunted us; or meeting with a face, a figure, or cast of expression in perfection that we have seen and admired in a less degree or in less favorable circumstances a hundred times before.

  William Hazlitt

  Sight, Expression, Imagination

  William Hazlitt, Percival Presland Howe (1925). “New writings by Willam Hazlitt”

  4 Copy quote

• A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common.

  William Hazlitt

  Vulgarity Is, Common, Vulgar

  William Hazlitt (1854). “The Miscellaneous Works”

  7 Copy quote

• Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.

  William Hazlitt

  Home, Night, Rustic

  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.246

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

Page 20 of 25

First

← Prev

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin