William Hazlitt Quotes
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A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
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Men of gravity are intellectual stammerers, whose thoughts move slowly.
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Happy are they who live in the dream of their own existence, and see all things in the light of their own minds; who walk by faith and hope; to whom the guiding star of their youth still shines from afar, and into whom the spirit of the world has not entered! They have not been "hurt by the archers", nor has the iron entered their souls. The world has no hand on them.
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True friendship is self-love at second-hand.
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Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
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Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
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To speak highly of one with whom we are intimate is a species of egotism. Our modesty as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on this subject.
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The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.
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The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.
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We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong.
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It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.
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Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.
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Envy is littleness of soul.
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We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.
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We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
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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; 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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We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves.
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The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.
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Grace in women has more effect than beauty. We sometimes see a certain fine self-possession, an habitual voluptuousness of character, which reposes on its own sensations and derives pleasure from all around it, that is more irresistible than any other attraction. There is an air of languid enjoyment in such persons, "in their eyes, in their arms, and their hands, and their face," which robs us of ourselves, and draws us by a secret sympathy towards them.
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Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit--or a mask.
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Silence is one great art of conversation.
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Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.