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William Hazlitt Quotes about Art

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The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

William Hazlitt
Inspirational, Life, Art
William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.531

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.

William Hazlitt
Art, Lying, Philosophy
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1471, Delphi Classics

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

William Hazlitt
Art, Knowledge, People
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.42

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

William Hazlitt
Art, Freedom, Teaching
'Sketches and Essays' (1839) 'On Taste'

The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.

William Hazlitt
Art, Attention, Hearing
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2779, Delphi Classics

As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

William Hazlitt
Art, Lying, Hypocrisy
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1319, Delphi Classics

Silence is one great art of conversation.

William Hazlitt
Art, Communication, Silence
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.

William Hazlitt
Life, Art, Order
William Hazlitt (1817). “The Round Table: A Collection of Essays on Literature, Men and Manners”, p.36

In art, in taste, in life, in speech, you decide from feeling, and not from reason. If we were obliged to enter into a theoretical deliberation on every occasion before we act, life would be at a stand, and Art would be impracticable.

William Hazlitt
Art, Feelings, Would Be
"Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners". Book by William Hazlitt. Chapter: "On Genius and Common Sense", 1822.

Art is the microscope of the mind, which sharpens the wit as the other does the sight; and converts every object into a little universe in itself. Art may be said to draw aside the veil from nature. To those who are perfectly unskilled in the practice, unimbued with the principles of art, most objects present only a confused mass.

William Hazlitt
Art, Confused, Sight
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.249, Delphi Classics

Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty; but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.

William Hazlitt
Art, Real, Ignorance
William Hazlitt (1821). “Table-talk: Or Original Essays”, p.37

There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.

William Hazlitt
Art, Moving, Men
William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.35

The amiable is the voluptuous in expression or manner. The sense of pleasure in ourselves is that which excites it in others; or, the art of pleasing is to seem pleased.

William Hazlitt
Art, Expression, Pleasure
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”

A taste for liberal art is necessary to complete the character of a gentleman, Science alone is hard and mechanical. It exercises the understanding upon things out of ourselves, while it leaves the affections unemployed, or engrossed with our own immediate, narrow interests.

William Hazlitt
Art, Character, Exercise
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.393, Delphi Classics

The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.

William Hazlitt
Art
'The Round Table' (1817) 'On Manner'

Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.

William Hazlitt
Funny, Art, Growth
William Hazlitt (1841). “Lectures on the English Comic Writers”, p.23

Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.

William Hazlitt
Sports, Art, Anchors
William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.250

The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.

William Hazlitt
Art, Past, Achievement
'The Spirit of the Age' (1825) 'Mr Coleridge'

There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass ""no day without a line""-visit no place without the company of a book-we may with ease fill libraries or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

William Hazlitt
Art, Book, Library

Life is the art of being well deceived.

William Hazlitt
Art, Deceived Us, Deception
William Hazlitt (1817). “The Round Table: A Collection of Essays on Literature, Men and Manners”, p.36

No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.

William Hazlitt
Art, Science, Men
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.261, Delphi Classics

Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

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

Taste is nothing but an enlarged capacity for receiving pleasure from works of imagination.

William Hazlitt
Art, Imagination, Receiving
William Hazlitt (1852). “Men and manners: sketches and essays”, p.199

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