William Hazlitt Quotes
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The corpse of friendship is not worth embalming.
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I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.
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That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those who are opposed to them. The friends of liberty trust to the professions of others because they are themselves sincere, and endeavour to secure the public good with the least possible hurt to its enemies, who have no regard to anything but their own unprincipled ends, and stick at nothing to accomplish them.
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We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.
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People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.
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Vanity does not refer to the opinion a man entertains of himself, but to that which he wishes others to entertain of him.
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Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.
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The Princess Borghese, Bonaparte's sister, who was no saint, sat to Canova as a reclining Venus, and being asked if she did not feel a little uncomfortable, replied, "No. There was a fire in the room."
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Success in business is seldom owing to uncommon talents or original power which is untractable and self-willed, but to the greatest degree of commonplace capacity.
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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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We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
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Learning is its own exceeding great reward.
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Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
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Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.
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Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.
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No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.
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We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
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The mind revolts against certain opinions, as the stomach rejects certain foods.
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The great requisite for the prosperous management of ordinary business is the want of imagination.
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A mighty stream of tendency.
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If our hours were all serene, we might probably take almost as little note of them as the dial does of those that are clouded.
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Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.
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Good temper is an estate for life.
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Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not, let your liberality keep pace with their good fortune. Envy no one, and you need envy no one.