Top 617 Quotes & Sayings by William Hazlitt

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English critic William Hazlitt.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Despite his high standing among historians of literature and art, his work is currently little read and mostly out of print.

Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!
Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.
If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory. — © William Hazlitt
If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
That which is not, shall never be; that which is, shall never cease to be. To the wise, these truths are self-evident.
Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love. — © William Hazlitt
There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.
I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.
The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.
A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.
There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.
Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.
Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.
A wise traveler never despises his own country.
Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.
It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.
An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.
Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
Learning is its own exceeding great reward.
As is our confidence, so is our capacity.
The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
We are not hypocrites in our sleep.
Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul. — © William Hazlitt
Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.
To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.
The truly proud man knows neither superiors or inferiors. The first he does not admit of - the last he does not concern himself about.
Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.
The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
The more we do, the more we can do.
Everything is in motion. Everything flows. Everything is vibrating.
Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul. — © William Hazlitt
Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.
Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust; hatred alone is immortal.
If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.
Zeal will do more than knowledge.
If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.
Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.
Reflection makes men cowards.
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