William Hazlitt Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of William Hazlitt's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Writer William Hazlitt's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 613 quotes on this page collected since April 10, 1778! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • He who draws upon his own resources easily comes to an end of his wealth.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1628, Delphi Classics
  • The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.

    'The Spirit of the Age' (1825) 'Mr Coleridge'
  • Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1270, Delphi Classics
  • There are only three pleasures in life pure and lasting, and all derived from inanimate things-books, pictures and the face of nature.

    Nature   Book  
    William Hazlitt (1824). “Sketches of the Principal Picture-galleries in England, with a Criticism on "Marriage A-la-mode.".”, p.51
  • Natural affection is a prejudice; for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.

    William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.102
  • Persons who undertake to pry into, or cleanse out all the filth of a common sewer, either cannot have very nice noses, or will soon lose them.

    William Hazlitt (1819). “Political essays, with sketches of public characters ...”, p.294
  • Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.

    William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1904). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Fugitive writings”
  • Those who have little shall have less, and that those who have much shall take all that others have left.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.411, Delphi Classics
  • I am proud up to the point of equality; everything above or below that appears to me arrant impertinence or abject meanness.

    William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”
  • There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1498, Delphi Classics
  • Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.

    William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.205
  • The youth is better than the old age of friendship.

    William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.493
  • The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.

    'The Round Table' (1817) 'On Manner'
  • The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.

    William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.137
  • A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.

    William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.137
  • Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.

    William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”, p.141
  • Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics
  • Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

  • Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

    William Hazlitt (1889). “William Hazlitt, Essayist and Critic: Selections from His Writings with a Memoir, Biographical and Critical”
  • Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1105, Delphi Classics
  • Landscape painting is the obvious resource of misanthropy.

    William Hazlitt (1844). “Criticisms on Art”, p.233
  • There are names written in her immortal scroll at which Fame blushes!

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1471, Delphi Classics
  • The public have neither shame or gratitude.

    "Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims". Book by William Hazlitt, 1823.
  • A mighty stream of tendency.

    William Hazlitt (1848). “The Miscellaneous Works”, p.86
  • Learning is its own exceeding great reward.

    William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2108, Delphi Classics
  • Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.

    William Hazlitt (1841). “Lectures on the English Comic Writers”, p.23
  • One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.

    William Hazlitt, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, Charles Lamb (1836). “Literary Remains of the Late William Hazlitt: With Notice of His Life”, p.284
  • 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.

    William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.553
  • The expression of a gentleman's face is not so much that of refinement, as of flexibility, not of sensibility and enthusiasm as of indifference; it argues presence of mind rather than enlargement of ideas.

  • The wretched are in this respect fortunate, that they have the strongest yearning after happiness; and to desire is in some sense to enjoy.

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We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 613 quotes from the Writer William Hazlitt, starting from April 10, 1778! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!