William Hazlitt Quotes
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Men of gravity are intellectual stammerers, whose thoughts move slowly.
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However we may flatter ourselves to the contrary, our friends think no higher of us than the world do. They see us through the jaundiced or distrustful eyes of others. They may know better, but their feelings are governed by popular prejudice. Nay, they are more shy of us (when under a cloud) than even strangers; for we involve them in a common disgrace, or compel them to embroil themselves in continual quarrels and disputes in our defense.
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit--or a mask.
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The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.
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I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.
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Envy is the most universal passion. We only pride ourselves on the qualities we possess, or think we possess; but we envy the pretensions we have, and those which we have not, and do not even wish for. We envy the greatest qualities and every trifling advantage. We envy the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of superiority. We envy folly and conceit; nay, we go so far as to envy whatever confers distinction of notoriety, even vice and infamy.
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The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.
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We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves.
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Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.
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Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
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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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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 do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
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Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.
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Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
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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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Silence is one great art of conversation.
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The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
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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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If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.
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It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.
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We can scarcely hate anyone that we know.
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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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Our lives are ruled by impermanence. The challenge is how to create something of enduring value within the context of our impermanent lives. Soka Gakkai Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.