William Hazlitt Quotes
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There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.
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A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.
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Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.
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When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.
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Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
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Those who object to wit are envious of it.
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Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.
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Books are a world in themselves, it is true; but they are not the only world. The world itself is a volume larger than all the libraries in it.
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Taste is nothing but an enlarged capacity for receiving pleasure from works of imagination.
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In art, in taste, in life, in speech, you decide from feeling, and not from reason. If we were obliged to enter into a theoretical deliberation on every occasion before we act, life would be at a stand, and Art would be impracticable.
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One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.
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The title of Ultracrepidarian critics has been given to those persons who find fault with small and insignificant details.
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The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men.
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The public is so in awe of its own opinion that it never dares to form any, but catches up the first idle rumour, lest it should be behindhand in its judgment, and echoes it till it is deafened with the sound of its own voice.
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I do not think that what is called Love at first sight is so great an absurdity as it is sometimes imagined to be. We generally make up our minds beforehand to the sort of person we should like, grave or gay, black, brown, or fair; with golden tresses or raven locks; - and when we meet with a complete example of the qualities we admire, the bargain is soon struck.
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The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
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There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.
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If we use no ceremony towards others, we shall be treated without any. People are soon tired of paying trifling attentions to those who receive them with coldness, and return them with neglect.
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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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There is a softness and a harmony in the words and in the thought unparalleled. Of all conceits it is surely the most classical. "I count only the hours that are serene.".
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The most violent friendships soonest wear themselves out.
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Abuse is an indirect species of homage.
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I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.
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Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken