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Quote by William Hazlitt

“Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.”

Quote by William Hazlitt

Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

Work

Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

This illustrated volume includes a selection of essays, reviews, and literary criticism by the 19th-century English writer William Hazlitt. The collection showcases his wit, insight, and influence on English literature. more

Author

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt, born on April 10, 1778, was an influential English essayist and literary critic. His works are renowned for their sharp observations and profound insights, which have had a lasting impact on 19th-century British literature. more

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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.”

People Thinking Littles Matter Seems Lasts Opportunity Natural Our Lives Exercise Accounts Stupidity Manage Former Settling Spite Disposition Plague Disappoint Tenors Caprice Perversity

Author:William Hazlitt

“The last sort I shall mention are verbal critics - mere word-catchers, fellows that pick out a word in a sentence and a sentence in a volume, and tell you it is wrong. The title of Ultra-Crepidarian critics has been given to a variety of this species.”

Has Beens Lasts Given Picks Fellows Mere Species Critics Sentences Variety Titles Volume Catchers Ultras

Book:Table-talk: Or, Original Essays

Source: Table-talk: Or, Original Essays

“Learning is its own exceeding great reward; and at the period of which we speak, it bore other fruits, not unworthy of it.”

Speak Periods Fruit Rewards Bores Unworthy Great Reward

Book:Table talk

Source: Table talk

“Fashion constantly begins and ends in the two things it abhors most, singularity and vulgarity.”

Two Ends Fashion Two Things Vulgarity Singularity

Author:William Hazlitt

“Death cancels everything but truth; and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It is a sort of natural canonization.”

Men Natural Virtue Genius

Author:William Hazlitt

“We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.”

Dream Technology Computer Finishing Computing Shelf Life

Author:Bill Gates

“The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.”

Speak Virtue Ill Offence

Author:William Hazlitt

“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.”

Source: Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners

“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.”

Character Standards Ignorant Conform Propriety Conceited

Book:Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By William Hazlitt. Third edition. Edited by his son [William Hazlitt the Younger].

Source: Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By William Hazlitt. Third edition. Edited by his son [William Hazlitt the Younger].

“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.”