William Hazlitt: Doing

“In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.”

William Hazlitt

Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830

Question

“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.”

William Hazlitt

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

Feeling , Gratitude

“It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition … This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good, and to plague and disappoint as many people, as possible.”

William Hazlitt

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

People , Stupidity , Disappointment , Exercises

“If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power, for you necessarily feel some towards him; and since he will take no denial, you must comply with his peremptory demands, or send for a constable, which out of respect for his character you will not do.”

William Hazlitt

" 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)

Feeling , Personality

“Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labour in it, but they labour in it because they excel.”

William Hazlitt

No. 416
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Men

“It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.”

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)

Reading

“The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature.”

William Hazlitt book The Round Table

"On the Literary Character" (28 October 1813)
The Round Table (1815-1817)

Nature , Joy , Perfection

“The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.”

William Hazlitt

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

Feeling , Soul , Thinking , Perfection

“Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.”

William Hazlitt

No. 388
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Men , Memory

“Very trifling circumstances do give great and daily annoyance, and as often prove too much for our philosophy and forbearance, as matters of the highest moment. … The truth is, we pamper little griefs into great ones, and bear great ones as well as we can … To great evils we submit; we resent little provocations.”

William Hazlitt

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

Truth , Evil

“Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.”

William Hazlitt

No. 87
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.”

William Hazlitt

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

Thinking

“Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.”

William Hazlitt

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

Happiness

“We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.”

William Hazlitt

"Thoughts on Taste," Edinburgh Magazine, (October 1818), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)

Understanding , Nature , Heart

“His hypothesis goes to this — to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.”

William Hazlitt

"On Certain Inconsistencies in Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

Support

“Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone — but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.”

William Hazlitt

" On The Conduct of Life" http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/ConductLife.htm (1822), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)

Friendship , For Friend , For Bestfriend , Friendship

“One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey; but I like to do it myself. I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.”

William Hazlitt

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

World , Nature

“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)

Knowledge

“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

Truth , Feeling

“The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.”

William Hazlitt book The Spirit of the Age

"Mr. Brougham — Sir F. Burdett" http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Age/Mr._Brougham-Sir_F._Burdett
The Spirit of the Age (1825)

Business