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William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 24

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Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart

Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

William Hazlitt
Respect, Heart, Pride

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

William Hazlitt
Perseverance, Passion, Ambition
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.62

We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.

William Hazlitt
Anger, Long, Imagination
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1916, Delphi Classics

Grace in women has more effect than beauty. We sometimes see a certain fine self-possession, an habitual voluptuousness of character, which reposes on its own sensations and derives pleasure from all around it, that is more irresistible than any other attraction. There is an air of languid enjoyment in such persons, "in their eyes, in their arms, and their hands, and their face," which robs us of ourselves, and draws us by a secret sympathy towards them.

William Hazlitt
Character, Eye, Air
William Hazlitt (1872). “Sketches and Essays: And Winterslow (essays Written There).”, p.365

The look of a gentleman is little else than the reflection of the looks of the world.

William Hazlitt
Reflection, Gentleman, Looks

We must be doing something to be happy.

William Hazlitt
Being Happy
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1029, Delphi Classics

There cannot be a surer proof of low origin, or of an innate meanness of disposition, than to be always talking and thinking of being genteel.

William Hazlitt
Thinking, Talking, Proof
William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.

William Hazlitt
Self Esteem, Thinking, People
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.38

Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

William Hazlitt
Animal, Men, Fiction
William Hazlitt (1854). “The Miscellaneous Works”

Nothing gives such a blow to friendship as the detecting another in an untruth. It strikes at the root of our confidence ever after.

William Hazlitt
Blow, Roots, Giving
William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.488

There are names written in her immortal scroll at which Fame blushes!

William Hazlitt
Names, Fame, Immortal
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1471, Delphi Classics

Men of the greatest genius are not always the most prodigal of their encomiums. But then it is when their range of power is confined, and they have in fact little perception, except of their own particular kind of excellence.

William Hazlitt
Men, Perception, Excellence
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1465, Delphi Classics

A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.

William Hazlitt
Men, Doe, Proud
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.41

A situation in a public office is secure, but laborious and mechanical, and without the great springs of life, hope and fear.

William Hazlitt
Spring, Office, Anxiety
William Hazlitt, Herschel Moreland Sikes, William Hallam Bonner, Gerald Lahey (1979). “The Letters of William Hazlitt”, p.235, Springer

A woman's vanity is interested in making the object of her choice the god of her idolatry.

William Hazlitt
Vanity, Choices, Idolatry
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1871, Delphi Classics

The most phlegmatic dispositions often contain the most inflammable spirits, as fire is struck from the hardest flints.

William Hazlitt
Anger, Fire, Spirit

Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.

William Hazlitt
Fashion, Issues, Clothes
William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.205

Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from, the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth.

William Hazlitt
Destiny, Birth Place, Ties
William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.84

Horus non numero nisi serenas (I count only the sunny hours).

William Hazlitt
Time, Sunny, Hours

We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

William Hazlitt
Stories, May, Willing

There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.

William Hazlitt
Country, Ifs
'The Round Table' (1817) 'Observations on Mr Wordsworth's Poem 'The Excursion"

Walk groundly, talk profoundly, drink roundly, sleep soundly.

William Hazlitt
Sleep, Drink, Walks

We trifle with, make sport of, and despise those who are attached to us, and follow those that fly from us.

William Hazlitt
Sports, Hate, Despise
William Hazlitt, Herschel Moreland Sikes, William Hallam Bonner, Gerald Lahey (1979). “The Letters of William Hazlitt”, p.231, Springer

Cant is the voluntary overcharging or prolongation of a real sentiment; hypocrisy is the setting up a pretension to a feeling you never had and have no wish for.

William Hazlitt
Real, Hypocrisy, Feelings
William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.44

I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.

William Hazlitt
Ambition, Player, Being The Best
William Hazlitt, Duncan Wu (1998). “The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt”, Pickering & Chatto Ltd

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