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William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 20

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Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.

Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.

William Hazlitt
Idols, May, Admiration
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1464, Delphi Classics

To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.

William Hazlitt
Birthday, Time, Age

Dandyism is a variety of genius.

William Hazlitt
Genius, Dandyism, Variety

The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.

William Hazlitt
Thinking, Quality, Complaining
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

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.

William Hazlitt
Fashion, Real, Men
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1485, Delphi Classics

A lively blockhead in company is a public benefit. Silence or dulness by the side of folly looks like wisdom.

William Hazlitt
Silence, Looks, Benefits
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.137

The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.

William Hazlitt
Positive, Running, Men
William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.37

What I mean by living to one's self is living in the world, as in it, not of it.

William Hazlitt
Mean, Self, World
William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”, p.65

There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.

William Hazlitt
Wise, Men, Idiot
William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.492

Languages happily restrict the mind to what is of its own native growth and fitted for it, as rivers and mountains bond countries; or the empire of learning, as well as states, would become unwieldy and overgrown.

William Hazlitt
Country, Rivers, Growth

Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.

William Hazlitt
Commitment, Keeping Promises, People

Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.

William Hazlitt
Home, Night, Rustic
William Hazlitt, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, Charles Lamb (1836). “Literary Remains of the Late William Hazlitt: With Notice of His Life”, p.246

A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common.

William Hazlitt
Vulgarity Is, Common, Vulgar
William Hazlitt (1854). “The Miscellaneous Works”

We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

William Hazlitt
Self, Excellence, Mistress
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

Love at first sight is only realizing an imagination that has always haunted us; or meeting with a face, a figure, or cast of expression in perfection that we have seen and admired in a less degree or in less favorable circumstances a hundred times before.

William Hazlitt
Sight, Expression, Imagination
William Hazlitt, Percival Presland Howe (1925). “New writings by Willam Hazlitt”

Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.

William Hazlitt
Our Words, Belief, Action
William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.27

A scholar is like a book written in a dead language. It is not every one that can read in it.

William Hazlitt
Book, Language, Scholar
William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”

Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.

William Hazlitt
Temper, Features
"The Complete Works of William Hazlitt".

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

William Hazlitt
Ideas, Way, Made
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1105, Delphi Classics

I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.

William Hazlitt
Friendship, Faults
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1921, Delphi Classics

Charity, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Next to putting it in a bank, men like to squander their superfluous wealth on those to whom it is sure to be doing the least possible good.

William Hazlitt
Money, Men, Vacuums
William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”

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

William Hazlitt
Greatness, Men, Player
Table Talk "The Indian Jugglers" (1822)

We prefer a person with vivacity and high spirits, though bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pusillanimous; we are fonder of wit joined to malice than of dullness without it.

William Hazlitt
Spirit, Insolence, Vivacity
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1486, Delphi Classics

I have known persons without a friend--never any one without some virtue. The virtues of the former conspired with their vices to make the whole world their enemies.

William Hazlitt
Enemy, Vices, World
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1473, Delphi Classics

There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.

William Hazlitt
Hypocrisy, Vices, Compliment
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1498, Delphi Classics

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