William Hazlitt Quotes
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Reflection makes men cowards.
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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.
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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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We can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home!
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If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.
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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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By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.
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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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Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.
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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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To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it.
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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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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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I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.
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True friendship is self-love at second-hand.
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The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.
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Time,--the most independent of all things.
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Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
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It is easier taking the beaten path than making our way over bogs and precipices. The great difficulty in philosophy is to come to every question with a mind fresh and unshackled by former theories, though strengthened by exercise and information.
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The soul of dispatch is decision.
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None but those who are happy in themselves can make others so.
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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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The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.