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William Hazlitt Quotes about Character

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He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.

He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.

William Hazlitt
Success, Good Life, Character
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1334, Delphi Classics

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.

William Hazlitt
Lying, Character, Men
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.75

We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them; and a lucky hit, either in business or reputation, improves even their personal appearance in our eyes.

William Hazlitt
Eye, Character, Judging

Envy is the deformed and distorted offspring of egotism; and when we reflect on the strange and disproportioned character of the parent, we cannot wonder at the perversity and waywardness of the child.

William Hazlitt
Children, Character, Envy

Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies.

William Hazlitt
Character, Personality, Enough
William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.82

To display the greatest powers, unless they are applied to great purposes, makes nothing for the character of greatness.

William Hazlitt
Character, Greatness, Purpose
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1105, Delphi Classics

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 discussing the characters and foibles of common friends is a great sweetness and cement of friendship.

William Hazlitt
Friends, Character, Common

Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.

William Hazlitt
Character, Personality, Merit
William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1464, Delphi Classics

There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character.

William Hazlitt
Character, Decision, Firmness
William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.

William Hazlitt
Life, Character, Men
William Hazlitt (1819). “Political essays, with sketches of public characters”, p.289

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.

William Hazlitt
Character, Conceited, Ignorant
William Hazlitt (1841). “Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By William Hazlitt. Third edition. Edited by his son [William Hazlitt the Younger].”, p.49

Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.

William Hazlitt
Kings, Character, Imagination
William Hazlitt (1845). “Characters of Shakespeare's Plays”, p.158

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

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