William Hazlitt: Trending quotes

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William Hazlitt: 372 quotes2 likes

“One has no notion of him as making use of a fine pen, but a great mutton-fist; his style stuns readers…He is too much for any single newspaper antagonist; "lays waste" a city orator or Member of Parliament, and bears hard upon the government itself. He is kind of fourth estate in the politics of the country.”

William Hazlitt

"On the Character of Cobbett" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.”

William Hazlitt

This is from Hazlitt's "Conversations of James Northcote, Esq., R.A.," New Monthly Magazine (1826-1827), published in book form in 1830; but the words were spoken by Northcote
Misattributed

“Again, there is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have also their altars and their religion.”

William Hazlitt

"On Cant and Hypocrisy"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)

“There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.”

William Hazlitt

"On Living to One's-Self" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“We grow tired of every thing but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.”

William Hazlitt

"On Application to Study"
The Plain Speaker (1826)

“A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them.”

William Hazlitt

"On the Look of a Gentleman"
The Plain Speaker (1826)

“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness, than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.”

William Hazlitt

"American Literature — Dr. Channing," Edinburgh Review, (October 1829), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)

“The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favour.”

William Hazlitt

"On the Spirit of Obligations"
The Plain Speaker (1826)

“Zeal will do more than knowledge.”

William Hazlitt

" On the Difference Between Writing and Speaking http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/DiffWritSpeak.htm" The Plain Speaker (1826)

“There is (so to speak) "a mighty stream of tendency" to good in the human mind, upon which all objects float and are imperceptibly borne along; and though in the voyage of life we meet with strong rebuffs, with rocks and quicksands, yet there is a "a tide in the affairs of men," a heaving and a restless aspiration of the soul, by means of which, "with sails and tackle torn," the wreck and scattered fragments of our entire being drift into the port and haven of our desires!”

William Hazlitt

"Why Distant Objects Please" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.”

William Hazlitt

"On the Ignorance of the Learned" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner — and then to thinking! … I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places, mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence.”

William Hazlitt

"On Going on a Journey" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for — they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?”

William Hazlitt

"The Modern Gradus ad Parnassum," London Weekly Review (17 May 1828), reprinted in New Writings by William Hazlitt (1925), edited by P. P. Howe

“Unlimited power is helpless, as arbitrary power is capricious. Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We can attempt nothing great, but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter: we can persevere in nothing great, but from a pride in overcoming them.”

William Hazlitt

No. 156
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.”

William Hazlitt

"On Knowledge of the World"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)

“Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room; nor know how to conduct myself in any circumstances, nor what to feel in any relation of life.”

William Hazlitt

"On Prejudice"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)

“Our first of poets was one of our first of men. He was an eminent instance to prove that a poet is not another name for the slave of power and fashion … who merely aspire to make up the pageant and show of the day. There are persons in common life who … can so little bear to be left for any length of time out of the grand carnival and masquerade of pride and folly, that they will gain admittance to it at the expense of their characters … Milton was not one of these. He had lofty contemplative principle, and consciousness of inward power and worth, [not] to be tempted by such idle baits.”

William Hazlitt

"On Milton's Sonnets" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“The last sort I shall mention are verbal critics — mere word-catchers, fellows that pick out a word in a sentence and a sentence in a volume, and tell you it is wrong. The title of Ultra-Crepidarian critics has been given to a variety of this species.”

William Hazlitt

"On Criticism" Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“Indeed some degree of affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body; we must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.”

William Hazlitt

" On Cant and Hypocrisy http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/CantHypocrisy.htm", London Weekly Review, (6 December 1828) Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)

“To be remembered after we are dead, is but a poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.”

William Hazlitt

No. 429
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)