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Top William Hazlitt Quotes

Browse top 47 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by William Hazlitt.

Favorite William Hazlitt Quotes

1. "A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it." ~ William Hazlitt
2. "He understands the texture and meaning of the visible universe, and 'sees into the life of things,' not by the help of mechanical instruments, but of the improved exercise of his faculties, and an intimate sympathy with Nature. The meanest thing is not lost upon him, for he looks at it with an eye to itself, not merely to his own vanity or interest, or the opinion of the world. Even where there is neither beauty nor use—if that ever were—still there is truth, and a sufficient source of gratification in the indulgence of curiosity and activity of mind. The humblest printer is a true scholar; and the best of scholars - the scholar of Nature." ~ William Hazlitt
3. "Modern fanaticism thrives in proportion to the quanitity of contradictions and nonsense it poures down the throats of the gaping multitude, and the jargon and mysticism it offers to their wonder and credulity." ~ William Hazlitt
4. "To write a genuine familiar or truly English style, is to write as any one 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
5. "In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates." ~ William Hazlitt
6. "We cannot read the same works forever. Our honey-moon, even though we wed the Muse, must come to an end; and it is followed by indifference, if not by disgust." ~ William Hazlitt
7. "I bear the creature no ill-will, but still I hate the very sight of it." ~ William Hazlitt
8. "the old maxim... "there are three things necessary to success in life--Impudence! Impudence! Impudence!" ~ William Hazlitt
9. "We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves." ~ William Hazlitt
10. "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
11. "Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern. Why, then, should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?" ~ William Hazlitt
12. "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
13. "Rome has been called the "Sacred City": - might not our Oxford be called so too? There is an air about it, resonant of joy and hope: it speaks with a thousand tongues to the heart: it waves its mighty shadow over the imagination: it stands in lowly sublimity, on the "hill of ages"; and points with prophetic fingers to the sky: it greets the eager gaze from afar, "with glistering spires and pinnacles adorned," that shine with an internal light as with the lustre of setting suns; and a dream and a glory hover round its head, as the spirits of former times, a throng of intellectual shapes, are seen retreating or advancing to the eye of memory: its streets are paved with the names of learning that can never wear out: its green quadrangles breathe the silence of thought." ~ William Hazlitt
14. "Sacrifices are no sacrifices when they are repaid a thousand fold." ~ William Hazlitt
15. "The world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors." ~ William Hazlitt
16. "Never so sure our rapture to createAs when it touch'd the brink of all we hate." ~ William Hazlitt
17. "Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice." ~ William Hazlitt
18. "The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote." ~ William Hazlitt
19. "Love turns, with little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal." ~ William Hazlitt
20. "The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors." ~ William Hazlitt
21. "The more we do, the more we can do." ~ William Hazlitt
22. "Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses." ~ William Hazlitt
23. "We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts." ~ William Hazlitt
24. "Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!" ~ William Hazlitt
25. "Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted." ~ William Hazlitt
26. "Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life." ~ William Hazlitt
27. "Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them." ~ William Hazlitt
28. "Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be." ~ William Hazlitt
29. "We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects." ~ William Hazlitt
30. "Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits." ~ William Hazlitt
31. "A man's life is his whole life, not the last glimmering snuff of the candle; and this, I say, is considerable, and not a little matter, whether we regard its pleasures or its pains. To draw a peevish conclusion to the contrary from our own superannuated desires or forgetful indifference is about as reasonable as to say, a man never was young because he has grown old, or never lived because he is now dead. The length or agreeableness of a journey does not depend on the few last steps of it, nor is the size of a building to be judged of from the last stone that is added to it. It is neither the first nor last hour of our existence, but the space that parts these two - not our exit nor our entrance upon the stage, but what we do, feel, and think while there - that we are to attend to in pronouncing sentence upon it." ~ William Hazlitt
32. "The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud." ~ William Hazlitt
33. "Shall I faint, now that I have poured out the spirit of my mind to the world, and treated many subjects with truth, with freedom, with power, because I have been followed with one cry of abuse ever since for not being a Government tool?" ~ William Hazlitt
34. "A wise traveler never despises his own country." ~ William Hazlitt
35. "It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse." ~ William Hazlitt
36. "The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy." ~ William Hazlitt
37. "A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could." ~ William Hazlitt
38. "A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles." ~ William Hazlitt
39. "The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much." ~ William Hazlitt
40. "I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why." ~ William Hazlitt
41. "Prejudice is the child of ignorance." ~ William Hazlitt
42. "There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you." ~ William Hazlitt
43. "To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind." ~ William Hazlitt
44. "He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies." ~ William Hazlitt
45. "I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them." ~ William Hazlitt
46. "The present is an age of talkers, and not doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and doat on past achievements." ~ William Hazlitt
47. "Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own."[The Sick Chamber (The New Monthly Magazine , August 1830)]" ~ William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt Quotes
William Hazlitt Quotes
William Hazlitt Quotes

Today's Quote

I deliberately never read about films before I see them."
Author: Andrea Arnold

What Did William Hazlitt Talk About?

Thin
Wit
Con
Here
End
Ear
Ring
Hen
Thou
Sure
Eye
Use
Lit
Self
Per
Though
Heart
Tan
King
Difference
Ends
Hear
Others
Low
Old
Son
Arts
Talk
May
Side
Tea
Owe
Cause
Mind
Ought
Hum
Ours
Laugh
Hate
Neither
Call
Either
Hey
Spirit
Able
Word
Cannot
Pen
Grow
Sat

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