Quotessence
Home / Authors / William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsMindWorldThinkingMayPeopleGivingPersonsWellsArtKnowsLittlesOpinionFeelsVirtueLifeBookObjectsPassion

Famous William Hazlitt Quotes

“Persons without education certainly do not want either acuteness or strength of mind in what concerns themselves, or in things immediately within their observation; but they have no power of abstraction, no general standard of taste, or scale of opinion. They see their objects always near, and never in the horizon. Hence arises that egotism which has been remarked as the characteristic of self-taught men.”

MenWantMindPersonsHas BeensSelfOpinionObjectsTaughtTasteStandardsConcernScalesAriseObservationCharacteristicsHorizonAbstractionEgotismStrength Of MindSelf Taught
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
Create image

“Man is an intellectual animal, and therefore an everlasting contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces between the two, without a possibility of its ever being otherwise.”

MenTwoIdeasEndsUniverseAnimalPiecesPossibilityIntellectualIntellectSensesContradictionCentreTornEverlasting
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
Create image

“Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.”

IfsMenMayEnoughTurnsWomenExtraordinaryBoundsSakeViolentReputationVanityMeritSparksModestyCompositionProprietyScruplesGallantryCoquette
Author:William Hazlitt
Create image

“That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those who are opposed to them. The friends of liberty trust to the professions of others because they are themselves sincere, and endeavour to secure the public good with the least possible hurt to its enemies, who have no regard to anything but their own unprincipled ends, and stick at nothing to accomplish them.”

MenEndsHumanityHurtLibertyEnemyRegardSticksInjusticeAccomplishProfessionTyrannySecureSincereSincerityCunningEndeavourPublic Good
Book:Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.”

KnowsMenMindHumansArtSaidDoneMovingNaturalProduceGeniusHighestMiracleExtraordinaryBreatheVanityHuman MindTrue Genius
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
Create image

“A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. This will apply to all displays of power or trials of skill, which are confined to the momentary, individual effort, and construct no permanent image or trophy of themselves without them”

MenWorldFoundIndividualEffortPlayerGreatnessSkillsChessTrialsPermanentGreat MenDisplayConstructsConfinedTrophiesMomentaryChess PlayersIndividual Effort
Author:William Hazlitt
Create image

“A man who does not endeavour to seem more than he is will generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention to fashion is necessary.”

MenDoeRealSelfSeemsCertainAttentionQualityAirFashionImportanceMeritEndeavourGood QualityDeductionsPretenceSelf-importance
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
Create image

“Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs. The heaviest charge we can bring against the general texture of society is that it is commonplace. Our fancied superiority to others is in some one thing which we think most of because we excel in it, or have paid most attention to it; whilst we overlook their superiority to us in something else which they set equal and exclusive store by.”

ThinkingMenHardLevelsAttentionWiseImagineOne ThingFoolMetsEqualPaidAbsolutesSurfaceStoresGiantsSuperiorityExclusiveCommonplaceTextureDwarfs
Author:William Hazlitt
Create image