William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 21

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• Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.

  William Hazlitt

  Nature, Strong, Book

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1091, Delphi Classics

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• A mighty stream of tendency.

  William Hazlitt

  Evolution, Tendencies, Streams

  William Hazlitt (1848). “The Miscellaneous Works”, p.86

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• Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.

  William Hazlitt

  Women, Reason

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1504, Delphi Classics

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• An honest man is respected by all parties.

  William Hazlitt

  Honesty, Party, Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1485, Delphi Classics

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• Humanity is to be met with in a den of robbers.

  William Hazlitt

  Humanity, Dens, Mets

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

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• Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.

  William Hazlitt

  Memories, Men, Mind

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.139

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• Fashion constantly begins and ends in the two things it abhors most, singularity and vulgarity.

  William Hazlitt

  Fashion, Two, Ends

  1818 'On Fashion', in the Scots Magazine.

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• 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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• 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

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• Habit is necessary to give power.

  William Hazlitt

  Giving, Habit

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

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• 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

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• One said a tooth drawer was a kind of unconscionable trade, because his trade was nothing else but to take away those things whereby every man gets his living.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Teeth, Kind

  "hakespeare Jest Books. Conceits, Clinches, Flashes and Whimzies", No. 84, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 188-89, 1922.

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• 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

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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

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• That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those who are opposed to them. The friends of liberty trust to the professions of others because they are themselves sincere, and endeavour to secure the public good with the least possible hurt to its enemies, who have no regard to anything but their own unprincipled ends, and stick at nothing to accomplish them.

  William Hazlitt

  Hurt, Men, Humanity

  William Hazlitt (2016). “Characters of Shakespeare's Plays”, p.48, William Hazlitt

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

  William Hazlitt

  Vulgarity Is, Common, Vulgar

  William Hazlitt (1854). “The Miscellaneous Works”

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• Men are in numberless instances qualified for certain things, for no other reason than because they are qualified for nothing else.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Reason, Certain

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.224

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• Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.

  William Hazlitt

  Fear Of Death, Ends, Cures

  Table Talk "On the Fear of Death" (1822)

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• A Whig is properly what is called a Trimmer - that is, a coward to both sides of the question, who dare not be a knave nor an honest man, but is a sort of whiffing, shuffling, cunning, silly, contemptible, unmeaning negation of the two.

  William Hazlitt

  Silly, Men, Two

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• There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character.

  William Hazlitt

  Character, Decision, Firmness

  William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

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• 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

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• A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.

  William Hazlitt

  Pain, Giving, Bears

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1360, Delphi Classics

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• 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

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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'

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• 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

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