William Hazlitt Quotes about Writing

All William Hazlitt Quotes Abuse Acceptance Achievement Acting Affection Age Ambition Anger Art Belief Business Character Children Choices Common Sense Community Competition Composition Confidence Country Critics Death Deception Desire Devil Dignity Diversity Dying Earth Education Effort Envy Evil Excellence Exercise Failing Fame Fashion Fear Of Death Feelings Freedom Friends Friendship Funny Genius Giving Grace Gratitude Greatness Growth Happiness Hate Hatred Heart Honesty Hope Humanity Hurt Hypocrisy Ignorance Imagination Inspirational Intelligence Journey Joy Judging Justice Knowledge Language Laughter Leadership Learning Liberty Life Love Lying Modesty Money Monument Motivational Nature Opportunity Pain Painting Passion Peace Perfection Personality Philosophy Pleasure Poverty Power Prejudice Pride Prudence Quality Reading Reflection Regret Reputation Respect Ridicule Running Science Shame Silence Sincerity Society Soul Sports Struggle Stupidity Style Success Talent Teaching Time Travel Truth Understanding Virtue Vocation Water Weakness Wealth Wit Writing quotes Youth

The more a man writes, the more he can write.

The more a man writes, the more he can write.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Men

William Hazlitt (1870). “Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, and Characters of Shakespear's Plays”, p.59

The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Impeccable

William Hazlitt (1859). “Table talk”

I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth... I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them.

William Hazlitt

Hate, Writing, Space

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1272, Delphi Classics

Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, however, wrote much and well, but too often by rote.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Men, Thinking

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.694, Delphi Classics

The characteristic of Chaucer is intensity: of Spencer, remoteness: of Milton elevation and of Shakespeare everything.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Intensity, Milton

It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.

William Hazlitt

Education, Writing, Able

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1091, Delphi Classics

To expect an author to talk as he writes is ridiculous; or even if he did you would find fault with him as a pedant.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Pedants, Faults

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1500, Delphi Classics

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Simplicity, Style

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1270, Delphi Classics

Poetry is only the highest eloquence of passion, the most vivid form of expression that can be given to our conception of anything, whether pleasurable or painful, mean or dignified, delightful or distressing. It is the perfect coincidence of the image and the words with the feeling we have, and of which we cannot get rid in any other way, that gives an instant "satisfaction to the thought." This is equally the origin of wit and fancy, of comedy and tragedy, of the sublime and pathetic.

William Hazlitt

Mean, Passion, Writing

William Hazlitt (1845). “Lectures on the English Poets”, p.9

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.

William Hazlitt

Writing, Choices, Style

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1270, Delphi Classics