William Hazlitt Quotes
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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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Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.
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The most violent friendships soonest wear themselves out.
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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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Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.
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An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.
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There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which, we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect, the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.
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He who would see old Hoghton right Must view it by the pale moonlight.
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It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed.
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If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.
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Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.
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Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.
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Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.
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A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence; but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.
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I am proud up to the point of equality; everything above or below that appears to me arrant impertinence or abject meanness.
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We prefer a person with vivacity and high spirits, though bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pusillanimous; we are fonder of wit joined to malice than of dullness without it.
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I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
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An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
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We must be doing something to be happy.
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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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We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.
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Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.
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Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.
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Learning is its own exceeding great reward; and at the period of which we speak, it bore other fruits, not unworthy of it.