William Hazlitt cytaty
William Hazlitt
Data urodzenia: 10. Kwiecień 1778
Data zgonu: 18. Wrzesień 1830
Natępne imiona: 威廉·赫茲利特
William Hazlitt - angielski pisarz, eseista i krytyk literacki. Współpracował z takimi gazetami jak Morning Chronicle, Edinburgh Review, The London Magazine czy The Times, publikował serie esejów, m.in. poświęconych postaciom ze sztuk Williama Szekspira. Jego najbardziej znanym dziełem jest wydany w 1825 The Spirit of the Age, w którym opisywał współczesnych sobie twórców, jak Lord Byron, Jeremy Bentham, Walter Scott.
Cytaty William Hazlitt
„Ci, którzy nie mają pokoju w sobie, wojują z innymi.“
Źródło: cytowane w Futuro 2016, Edycja św. Pawła, Częstochowa 2015.
„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.“
— William Hazlitt, książka The Round Table
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Kontekst: 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.
„Mankind are an incorrigible race.“
"Common Places," No. 76, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823)
Kontekst: Mankind are an incorrigible race. Give them but bugbears and idols — it is all that they ask; the distinctions of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, are worse than indifferent to them.
„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.“
— William Hazlitt, książka The Round Table
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Kontekst: 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.
„There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.“
— William Hazlitt, książka The Round Table
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Kontekst: 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.
„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"
Kontekst: 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.
„The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.“
Źródło: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
„The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.“
No. 257
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Źródło: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
„He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.“
No. 401
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Źródło: 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)
Źródło: Essays of William Hazlitt: Selected and Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank Carr
„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.“
"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
„Love turns, with little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal.“
Źródło: On the Pleasure of Hating
