William Hazlitt Quotes
-
Envy is littleness of soul.
-
No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.
-
A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
-
The essence of poetry is will and passion.
-
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.
-
Faith is necessary to victory.
-
Dandyism is a species of genius.
-
It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.
-
Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
-
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.
-
Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
-
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I am then never less alone than when alone
-
Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.
-
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.
-
The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.
-
Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.
-
Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.
-
There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass ""no day without a line""-visit no place without the company of a book-we may with ease fill libraries or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
-
When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.
-
Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope.
-
It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.