William Hazlitt: Man

William Hazlitt was English writer. Explore interesting quotes on man.
William Hazlitt: 372   quotes 2   likes

“Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.”

William Hazlitt

No. 305
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“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.”

William Hazlitt

"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)

Animals

“Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the colour in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty, and your animal spirits, and you will pass for a fine man.”

William Hazlitt

"On The Conduct of Life" (1822)

Health , Beauty , Animals , Personality

“The truly proud man knows neither superiors nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of: the last he does not concern himself about.”

William Hazlitt

No. 112
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“I think it is a rule that men in business should not be taught other things. Any one will be almost sure to make money who has no other idea in his head. A college education, or intense study of abstract truth, will not enable a man to drive a bargain … The best politicians are not those who are deeply grounded in mathematical or in ethical science. Rules stand in the way of expediency. Many a man has been hindered from pushing his fortune in the world by an early cultivation of his moral sense.”

William Hazlitt

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

Men , Money , Truth , World

“No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others; and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he.”

William Hazlitt

No. 132
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Age , Parent

“No young man believes he shall ever die.”

William Hazlitt

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

“Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.”

William Hazlitt

Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824), ch. XVI

Animals , Parting

“When a man is dead, they put money in his coffin, erect monuments to his memory, and celebrate the anniversary of his birthday in set speeches. Would they take any notice of him if he were living? No!”

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)

Money , Birthday , Memory , Dead

“The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.”

William Hazlitt

No. 402
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Way

“An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.”

William Hazlitt

No. 387
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Truth

“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

“A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man.”

William Hazlitt

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

“First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions. A man's look is the work of years, it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.”

William Hazlitt

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

Life , Nature

“No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.”

William Hazlitt

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

Deep , Powerful , History

“Defoe says, that there were a hundred thousand stout country-fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.”

William Hazlitt

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

Death , Time , Horse , Fight

“Reputation runs in a vicious circle, and Merit limps behind it, mortified and abashed at its own insignificance. It has been said that the test of fame or popularity is to consider the number of times your name is repeated by others … So, if you see the same name staring you in the face in great letters at the corner of every street, you involuntarily think the owner of it must be a great man to occupy so large a space in the eye of the town. The appeal is made, in the first instance, to the senses, but it sinks below the surface into the mind. There are various ways of playing one's-self off before the public, and keeping one's name alive. The newspapers, the lamp-posts, the walls of empty houses, the shutters of windows, the blank covers of magazines and reviews, are open to every one.”

William Hazlitt

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

Way , Thinking , Sense , Time

“Scholars, like princes, may learn something by being incognito. Yet we see those who cannot go into a bookseller's shop, or bear to be five minutes in a stage-coach, without letting you know who they are. They carry their reputation about with them as the snail does its shell, and sit under its canopy, like the lady in the lobster. I cannot understand this at all. What is the use of a man's always revolving round his own little circle? He must, one should think, be tired of it himself, as well as tire other people.”

William Hazlitt

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

People , Understanding , Thinking , Learning

“The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be as constantly wound up.”

William Hazlitt

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

“No really great man ever thought himself so.”

William Hazlitt

"Whether Genius is Conscious of its Powers?"
The Plain Speaker (1826)