William Hazlitt Quotes
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There is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.
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Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a good-natured man have a double effect.
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The expression of a gentleman's face is not so much that of refinement, as of flexibility, not of sensibility and enthusiasm as of indifference; it argues presence of mind rather than enlargement of ideas.
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Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.
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Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.
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The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas.
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Diffidence and awkwardness are antidotes to love.
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Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.
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The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation.
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Fashion constantly begins and ends in the two things it abhors most, singularity and vulgarity.
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The vain man makes a merit of misfortune, and triumphs in his disgrace.
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Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable.
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If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
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Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.
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To the proud the slightest repulse or disappointment is the last indignity.
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Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.
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Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
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...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.
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Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly and unconsciously; wit is the pointing out and ridiculing that absurdity consciously, and with more or less ill-nature.
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Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
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Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.
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The last sort I shall mention are verbal critics - mere word-catchers, fellows that pick out a word in a sentence and a sentence in a volume, and tell you it is wrong. The title of Ultra-Crepidarian critics has been given to a variety of this species.
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A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.
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A distinction has been made between acuteness and subtlety of understanding. This might be illustrated by saying that acuteness consists in taking up the points or solid atoms, subtlety in feeling the air of truth.