Quotessence
Home / Authors / William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsMindWorldThinkingMayPeopleGivingPersonsWellsArtKnowsLittlesOpinionFeelsVirtueLifeBookObjectsPassion

Famous William Hazlitt Quotes

“The confined air of a metropolis is hurtful to the minds and bodies of those who have never lived out of it. It is impure, stagnant--without breathing-space to allow a larger view of ourselves or others--and gives birth to a puny, sickly, unwholesome, and degenerate race of beings.”

GivingMindBodySpaceViewsRaceCitiesAirBirthBreathingMind And BodyConfinedDegeneratesHurtfulStagnantMetropolisBreathing Space
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.”

GivingFeelsMindHumansAgeActionReadingNationsHurtInfluenceEnthusiasmImmortalityFlamesSentimentsThoughts And ActionsHuman Thought
Book:The Letters of William Hazlitt
Create image

“Poetry is only the highest eloquence of passion, the most vivid form of expression that can be given to our conception of anything, whether pleasurable or painful, mean or dignified, delightful or distressing. It is the perfect coincidence of the image and the words with the feeling we have, and of which we cannot get rid in any other way, that gives an instant "satisfaction to the thought." This is equally the origin of wit and fancy, of comedy and tragedy, of the sublime and pathetic.”

WayGivingWritingMeanFeelingsFormPassionGivenPerfectComedyExpressionHighestTragedyPainfulSatisfactionWitInstantFancyPoetry IsConceptionCoincidenceSublimeDelightfulVividPatheticEloquenceDistressing
Book:Lectures on the English Poets
Create image

“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.”

GivingEvilAsksRaceAtheismMankindPositive AtheismDistinctionGood And EvilIdolsSuperstitionsFalsehoodIndifferentTruth And FalsehoodIncorrigible
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
Create image