William Hazlitt Quotes
-
A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.
-
An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I am proud up to the point of equality; everything above or below that appears to me arrant impertinence or abject meanness.
-
I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
-
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.
-
There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.
-
A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.
-
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.
-
The silence of a friend commonly amounts to treachery. His not daring to say anything in our behalf implies a tacit censure.
-
One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.
-
Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.
-
The most violent friendships soonest wear themselves out.
-
If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
-
The poetical impression of any object is that uneasy, exquisite sense of beauty or power that cannot be contained within itself; that is impatient of all limit; that (as flame bends to flame) strives to link itself to some other image of kindred beauty or grandeur; to enshrine itself, as it were, in the highest forms of fancy, and to relieve the aching sense of pleasure by expressing it in the boldest manner.
-
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.
-
A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.
-
The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.
-
The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
-
Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
-
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.
-
Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.
-
Habit is necessary to give power.