William Hazlitt Quotes

I have known persons without a friend--never any one without some virtue. The virtues of the former conspired with their vices to make the whole world their enemies.

A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common.

Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.

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

Genius is native to the soil where it grows — is fed by the air, and warmed by the sun — and is not a hot - house plant or an exotic.

The last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty.

To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.

Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.

Taste is nothing but an enlarged capacity for receiving pleasure from works of imagination.

A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he is not making a fool of some other person.

The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men.

An accomplished coquette excites the passions of others, in proportion as she feels none herself.

It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.

They [corporations] feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.

A mighty stream of tendency.

There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals.

The most phlegmatic dispositions often contain the most inflammable spirits, as fire is struck from the hardest flints.

The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.

We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.

Virtue steals, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.

The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.

We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.

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

The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation.

Men of gravity are intellectual stammerers, whose thoughts move slowly.

A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.

No really great man ever thought himself so.

Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated.

Principle is a passion for truth.

A thought must tell at once, or not at all.

Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.

Poverty, labor, and calamity are not without their luxuries, which the rich, the indolent, and the fortunate in vain seek for.

People are not soured by misfortune, but by the reception they meet with in it.

The objects that we have known in better days are the main props that sustain the weight of our affections, and give us strength to await our future lot.

Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, however, wrote much and well, but too often by rote.

If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power.

Asleep, nobody is a hypocrite

The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.

Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a good-natured man have a double effect.

Perhaps propriety is as near a word as any to denote the manners of the gentleman; elegance is necessary to the fine gentleman; dignity is proper to noblemen; and majesty to kings.

It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary inference is the fair one.

Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.

None but those who are happy in themselves can make others so.

Envy is littleness of soul.

Time,--the most independent of all things.

Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.

Love may turn to indifference with possession.

While we desire, we do not enjoy; and with enjoyment desire ceases.

We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.