Works
The Round Table
William HazlittThe Spirit of the Age
William HazlittFamous William Hazlitt Quotes
“Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.”
No. 305
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
“He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.”
No. 401
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“Love turns, with little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal.”
Source: On the Pleasure of Hating
William Hazlitt: Trending quotes
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Context: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Context: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
"Common Places," No. 76, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823)
William Hazlitt Quotes
“He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.”
Lectures on the English Poets http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16209/16209.txt (1818), Lecture I, "On Poetry in General"
Context: 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.
“There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.”
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Context: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.”
Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
No. 257
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.”
"The Sick Chamber," The New Monthly Magazine (August 1830), reprinted in Essays of William Hazlitt, selected and edited by Frank Carr (London, 1889)
Source: Essays of William Hazlitt: Selected and Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank Carr
"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
"The Times Newspaper"
Political Essays (1819)
“We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.”
Source: Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims
“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.”
"Common Places," No. 1, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
Source: Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims
"On Reading New Books" (1825)
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
“Prejudice is the child of ignorance…”
" On Prejudice http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/Prejudice.htm"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
"On Corporate Bodies"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
No. 34
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
" My First Acquaintance with Poets http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/FirstAcquaintancePoets.htm" (1822)
The Plain Speaker (1826)
“Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference.”
"On Wit and Humour" http://books.google.com/books?id=XPchAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Wit+is+in+fact+the+eloquence+of%22&pg=PA23#v=onepage
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
No. 112
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
No. 54
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
"On the Disadvantages of Intellectual Superiority"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“But there is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.”
"On Disagreeable People"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
"On Will-Making"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
" On The Want Of Money," http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/Money.htm Monthly Magazine (January 1827), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
" On Disagreeable People http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/Disagreeable.htm" (August 1827)
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
No. 416
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Burke and the Edinburgh Phrenologists in The Atlas (15 February 1829); reprinted in New Writings by William Hazlitt, William Hazlitt and Percival Presland Howe (ed.), (2nd edition, 1925), p. 117; also reprinted in The Complete Works of William Hazlitt, Volume 20: Miscellaneous writings, (J.M. Dent and Sons, 1934), (AMS Press, 1967), p. 201
“Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope.”
No. 35
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
"On the Conversations of Lords," New Monthly Magazine (April 1826)
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
No. 132
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
“It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.”
"On the Ignorance of the Learned"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
"On Living to One's-Self"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“No young man believes he shall ever die.”
"On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature.”
"On the Literary Character" (28 October 1813)
The Round Table (1815-1817)
"On Cant and Hypocrisy"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
“The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.”
"On Going on a Journey"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
"Jeremy Bentham http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Age/Jeremy_Bentham
The Spirit of the Age (1825)
"On Old English Writers and Speakers" (1825)
The Plain Speaker (1826)
“We can scarcely hate any one that we know.”
"Why Distant Objects Please"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“All that is worth remembering in life, is the poetry of it.”
Lectures on the English Poets http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16209/16209.txt (1818), Lecture I, "On Poetry in General"
No. 388
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
“Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.”
"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
"On Great and Little Things"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
"Whether Genius is Conscious of its Powers?"
The Plain Speaker (1826)
“Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.”
Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824), ch. XVI
“Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.”
No. 72
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
