William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 24

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• The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.

  William Hazlitt

  Honesty, People, Office

  "Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims". Book by William Hazlitt. No. 43, 1823.

  9 Copy quote

• The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: the one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.

  William Hazlitt

  Thinking, Vanity, Differences

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.119

  12 Copy quote

• 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)

  4 Copy quote

• If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.

  William Hazlitt

  Peace, Long Ago, Society

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1924, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Religious, Time, Pain

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.69

  4 Copy quote

• We talk little when we do not talk about ourselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Littles, Speakers

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Thinking, Self

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

  4 Copy quote

• To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Mind, Speak

  William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.140

  55 Copy quote

• In what we really understand, we reason but little.

  William Hazlitt

  Understanding, Littles, Reason

  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.156

  4 Copy quote

• The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Sacrifice, Vanity, Self

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

  10 Copy quote

• Books are a world in themselves, it is true; but they are not the only world. The world itself is a volume larger than all the libraries in it.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Library, World

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1812, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

  William Hazlitt

  Kindness, Wish, Favors

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1476, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• A felon could plead "benefit of clergy" and be saved by [reading aloud] what was aptly enough termed the "neck verse", which was very usually the Miserere mei of Psalm 51.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Reading, Benefits

  4 Copy quote

• Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.

  William Hazlitt

  Family, Running, Blood

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2020, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Charity, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Next to putting it in a bank, men like to squander their superfluous wealth on those to whom it is sure to be doing the least possible good.

  William Hazlitt

  Money, Men, Vacuums

  William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”

  4 Copy quote

• We prefer a person with vivacity and high spirits, though bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pusillanimous; we are fonder of wit joined to malice than of dullness without it.

  William Hazlitt

  Spirit, Insolence, Vivacity

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1486, Delphi Classics

  9 Copy quote

• Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

  William Hazlitt

  Animal, Men, Fiction

  William Hazlitt (1854). “The Miscellaneous Works”

  5 Copy quote

• What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.

  William Hazlitt

  Nice, Choices, Principles

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.468

  4 Copy quote

• Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.

  William Hazlitt

  Pride

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2096, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• A man is a hypocrite only when he affects to take a delight in what he does not feel, not because he takes a perverse delight in opposite things.

  William Hazlitt

  Hypocrite, Men, Opposites

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.500

  4 Copy quote

• Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Silence, Quality

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

  5 Copy quote

• Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.

  William Hazlitt

  Friendship, Meat, Cold

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1919, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. This will apply to all displays of power or trials of skill, which are confined to the momentary, individual effort, and construct no permanent image or trophy of themselves without them

  William Hazlitt

  Greatness, Men, Player

  Table Talk "The Indian Jugglers" (1822)

  8 Copy quote

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