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William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt Quotes

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Famous William Hazlitt Quotes

“I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them.”

KnowsMenWellsMadeEyeLyingHateTermInterestMy OwnEnemyPiecesOrdinaryI HateInjusticeWoundsReformEaseReportsAnnoyingInterfereFew Friends
Book:The plain speaker: opinions on books, men, and things [by W. Hazlitt].
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“First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions. A man's look is the work of years, it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.”

MenYearsFirstsLooksHas BeensWholeHandsActionEventsCostAppearanceProfessionWhole LifeImpressionTruestCountenancePlausibleFirst Impression
Author:William Hazlitt
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“A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.”

MenShouldHas BeensSaidCharacterLyingCertainImaginationMercyProofWoundsImpressionReputationBeing TrueThrowingDelicateWipeTextureStainsMaliciousCalumnyRefutation
Book:Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].
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“A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.”

MenLifeWellsDoneCharacterBodyChurchOpinionPiecesDangerousFiguresHe ManNegativeDressesDivinitySentimentsEthicalCompositionAspireRespectableCoveringCarts
Book:Political essays, with sketches of public characters
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