William Hazlitt Quotes
-
From the height from which the great look down on the world all the rest of mankind seem equal.
-
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
-
It is the vice of scholars to suppose that there is no knowledge in the world but that of books.
-
There is evil poured upon the earth from the overflowings of corruption-- Sickness, and poverty, and pain, and guilt, and madness, and sorrow; But, as the water from a fountain riseth and sinketh to its level, Ceaselessly toileth justice to equalize the lots of men.
-
We imagine that the admiration of the works of celebrated men has become common, because the admiration of their names has become so.
-
Life is a continued struggle to be what we are not, and to do what we cannot.
-
Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from, the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth.
-
Those who are pleased with the fewest things know the least, as those who are pleased with everything know nothing.
-
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.
-
Knowledge is pleasure as well as power.
-
Natural affection is a prejudice; for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.
-
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.
-
There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.
-
A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
-
Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
-
Envy is littleness of soul.
-
Painters... are the most lively observers of what passes in the world about them, and the closest observers of what passes in their own minds.
-
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.
-
No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.
-
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
-
Rules and models destroy genius and art.
-
Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.
-
Wrong dressed out in pride, pomp, and circumstance has more attraction than abstract right.
-
The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.