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William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt Quotes

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Famous William Hazlitt Quotes

“People try to reconcile you to a disappointment in love by asking why you should cherish a passion for an object that has proved itself worthless. Had you known this before, you would not have encouraged the passion; but that having been once formed, knowledge does not destroy it. If we have drank poison, finding it out does not prevent its being in our veins: so passion leaves its poison in the mind!”

PeopleIfsLoveShouldTryingMindDoePassionKnownObjectsFindingsAskingDisappointmentPoisonCherishWorthlessVeinsDrankReconcileAsking WhyDisappointment Love
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
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“It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition. This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good, and to plague and disappoint as many people, as possible.”

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Author:William Hazlitt
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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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“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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“The soil of friendship is worn out with constant use. Habit may still attach us to each other, but we feel ourselves fettered by it. Old friends might be compared to old married people without the tie of children.”

PeopleFeelsMayChildrenStillsUseMightFriendshipHabitMarriedConstantTiesSoilWornOld FriendsWorn Out
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
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“If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will -the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.”

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Author:William Hazlitt
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“I maintain that there is no common language or medium of understanding between people of education and without it - between those who judge of things from books or from their senses. Ignorance has so far the advantage over learning; for it can make an appeal to you from what you know; but you cannot re-act upon it through that which it is a perfect stranger to. Ignorance is, therefore, power.”

PeopleKnowsBookLanguageUnderstandingPerfectCommonIgnoranceJudgingAdvantageStrangerSensesMediumsAppealsCommon LanguagePerfect StrangersThose Who Judge
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“The secret of the difficulties of those people who make a great deal of money, and yet are always in want of it, is this-they throw it away as soon as they get it on the first whim or extravagance that strikes them, and have nothing left to meet ordinary expenses or discharge old debts.”

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Book:Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].
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