William Hazlitt Quotes
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A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.
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There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals.
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I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.
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Elegance is something more than ease; it is more than a freedom from awkwardness or restraint. It implies, I conceive, a precision, a polish, a sparkling, spirited yet delicate.
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Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.
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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.
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Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.
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True friendship is self-love at second-hand.
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Envy is the deformed and distorted offspring of egotism; and when we reflect on the strange and disproportioned character of the parent, we cannot wonder at the perversity and waywardness of the child.
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A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.
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True friendship is self-love at second hand; where, as in a flattering mirror we may see our virtues magnified and our errors softened, and where we may fancy our opinion of ourselves confirmed by an impartial and faithful witness.
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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.
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A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.
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We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong.
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Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.
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What is popular is not necessarily vulgar; and that which we try to rescue from fatal obscurity had in general much better remain where it is.
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The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.
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The affected modesty of most women is a decoy for the generous, the delicate, and unsuspecting; while the artful, the bold, and unfeeling either see or break through its slender disguises.
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We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
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Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated.
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Reflection makes men cowards.
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A scholar is like a book written in a dead language. It is not every one that can read in it.
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The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.
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One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.