Quotes by William Hazlitt

About William Hazlitt:

William Hazlitt is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is currently little read and mostly out of print. During his lifetime he befriended many people who are now part of the 19th-century literary canon, including Charles and Mary Lamb, Stendhal, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and John Keats.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.

William Hazlitt

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

William Hazlitt

There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

William Hazlitt

A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.

William Hazlitt
Smile quotes by William Hazlitt, Work quotes by William Hazlitt, UberQuotes

A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.

William Hazlitt

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

William Hazlitt

The incentive to ambition is the love of power.

William Hazlitt

Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune.

William Hazlitt

The more we do, the more we can do.

William Hazlitt

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.

William Hazlitt

An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.

William Hazlitt

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

William Hazlitt

We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.

William Hazlitt

When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.

William Hazlitt

The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.

William Hazlitt

The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favor.

William Hazlitt

The most learned are often the most narrow minded.

William Hazlitt

To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.

William Hazlitt

Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.

William Hazlitt

Author Bio

  • NameWilliam Hazlitt
  • DescriptionEnglish writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, as the greatest art critic of his age, and as a drama critic, social commentator, and philosopher
  • BornApril 10, 1778
  • DiedSeptember 18, 1830
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionLiterary Historian; Philosopher; Writer
  • WorksCharacters Of Shakespear's Plays; Table-Talk; The Spirit Of The Age