William Hazlitt Quotes
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A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.
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Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.
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A wise traveler never despises his own country.
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Those who have had none of the cares of this life to harass and disturb them, have been obliged to have recourse to the hopes and fears of the next to vary the prospect before them.
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A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.
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Mankind are so ready to bestow their admiration on the dead, because the latter do not hear it, or because it gives no pleasure to the objects of it. Even fame is the offspring of envy.
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Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.
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A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them.
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When the imagination is continually led to the brink of vice by a system of terror and denunciations, people fling themselves over the precipice from the mere dread of falling.
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Vanity does not refer to the opinion a man entertains of himself, but to that which he wishes others to entertain of him.
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Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
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Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.
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To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.
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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.
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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.
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The mind revolts against certain opinions, as the stomach rejects certain foods.
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Good temper is an estate for life.
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Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.
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Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.
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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.
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It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.
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Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.
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We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.
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A man who does not endeavour to seem more than he is will generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention to fashion is necessary.