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William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt Quotes

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Famous William Hazlitt Quotes

“Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner - and then to thinking! ... I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places, mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence.”

ThinkingGivingFeelsHeartThreeHoursPerfectCommonSilenceClearFeetSkyMinesBrokenGive MeBlueGreenDinnerWitDullMarchAwkwardEloquenceBlue SkyTurfSilence Of The HeartClear Blue SkyWinding Road
Book:Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
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“Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees; or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.”

CharacterStandardsIgnorantConformProprietyConceited
Book:Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By William Hazlitt. Third edition. Edited by his son [William Hazlitt the Younger].
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“We cannot by a little verbal sophistry confound the qualities of different minds, nor force opposite excellences into a union by all the intolerance in the world. If we have a taste for some one precise style or manner, we may keep it to ourselves and let others have theirs. If we are more catholic in our notions, and want variety of excellence and beauty, it is spread abroad for us to profusion in the variety of books and in the several growth of men's minds, fettered by no capricious or arbitrary rules.”

IfsMenWorldWantMindMayLittlesBookDifferentForceGrowthQualityStyleTasteOppositesCatholicUnionsExcellenceNotionSpreadVarietyIntolerancePreciseArbitraryCapriciousSophistryDifferent Minds
Author:William Hazlitt
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“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.”

MenBelieveDoneRunningCan DoCommonSupportClearHe ManIndustryReaderGeniusFancyReasoningSchemesHypothesisSystematicExplicit
Book:Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
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“It has been the resolution of mankind in all ages of the world. No people, no age, ever threw away the fruits of past wisdom, or the enjoyment of present blessings, for visionary schemes of ideal perfection. It is the knowledge of the past, the actual infliction of the present, that has produced all changes, all innovations, and all improvements - not (as is pretended) the chimerical anticipation of possible advantages, but the intolerable pressure of long-established, notorious, aggravated, and growing abuses.”

PeopleWorldLongHas BeensAgePastGrowingMankindBlessingAdvantageIdealsPerfectionAbusePressureInnovationFruitImprovementEnjoymentResolutionAnticipationSchemesVisionariesNotoriousAggravatedInflictionKnowledge Of The Past
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“Whatever is placed beyond the reach of sense and knowledge, whatever is imperfectly discerned, the fancy pieces out at its leisure; and all but the present moment, but the present spot, passion claims for its own, and brooding over it with wings outspread, stamps it with an image of itself. Passion is lord of infinite space, and distant objects please because they border on its confines and are moulded by its touch.”

MomentsPassionSpaceLordPiecesObjectsPleaseClaimsInfiniteWingsSpotsBordersFancyOver ItPresent MomentLeisureStampsBroodingInfinite Space
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“Art is the microscope of the mind, which sharpens the wit as the other does the sight; and converts every object into a little universe in itself. Art may be said to draw aside the veil from nature. To those who are perfectly unskilled in the practice, unimbued with the principles of art, most objects present only a confused mass.”

MindMayLittlesDoeArtSaidUniversePrinciplesPracticeObjectsMassDrawsArt IsSightWitConfusedVeilsMicroscopes
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“Avarice is the miser's dream, as fame is the poet's.”

DreamPoetFameAvariceMisers
Book:Essays: On self-love. On the conduct of life: or, Advice to a school-boy. On the fine arts. The fight. On want of money. On the feeling of immortality in youth. The main-chance. The opera. Of persons one would wish to have seen. My first acquaintance with poets. The shyness of scholors. The Vatican. On the spirit of monarchy
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“We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.”

GivingSelfOpinionEnemyJudgingExtremesOffenseComplacencyConceitDefiance
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
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“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.”

KnowsMayPersonsArtSilenceQualityOpinionFoolConversationGainsCreditTongueWitSilence IsGreat ArtEloquenceArt Of Conversation
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“As a general rule, those who are dissatisfied with themselves will seek to go out of themselves into an ideal world. Persons in strong health and spirits, who take plenty of air and exercise, who are "in favor with, their stars," and have a thorough relish of the good things of this life, seldom devote themselves in despair to religion or the muses. Sedentary, nervous, hypochondriacal people, on the contrary, are forced, for want of an appetite for the real and substantial, to look out for a more airy food and speculative comforts.”

PeopleWorldWantLooksPersonsRealSpiritStrongStarsAirExerciseComfortDespairIdealsGood ThingsContraryFavorsNervousPlentyThis LifeAppetiteMuseThoroughRelishDissatisfiedAiryIdeal WorldSedentary
Author:William Hazlitt
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