William Hazlitt Quotes
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Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
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The soul of dispatch is decision.
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He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.
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In exploring new and doubtful tracts of speculation, the mind strikes out true and original views; as a drop of water hesitates at first what direction it will take, but afterwards follows its own course.
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It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things.
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Man is an intellectual animal, and therefore an everlasting contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces between the two, without a possibility of its ever being otherwise.
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A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
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The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.
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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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The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.
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I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them.
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Life is a continued struggle to be what we are not, and to do what we cannot.
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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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There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.
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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.
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Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
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A taste for liberal art is necessary to complete the character of a gentleman, Science alone is hard and mechanical. It exercises the understanding upon things out of ourselves, while it leaves the affections unemployed, or engrossed with our own immediate, narrow interests.
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Those who are pleased with the fewest things know the least, as those who are pleased with everything know nothing.
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True friendship is self-love at second-hand.
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Knowledge is pleasure as well as power.
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Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
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Rules and models destroy genius and art.
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The love of fame is too high and delicate a feeling in the mind to be mixed up with realities, it is a solitary abstraction. * * * A name "fast anchored in the deep abyss of time" is like a star twinkling in the firmament, cold, silent, distant, but eternal and sublime; and our transmitting one to posterity is as if we should contemplate our translation to the skies.
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Men of gravity are intellectual stammerers, whose thoughts move slowly.