William hazlitt quotes

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

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

Keep your misfortunes to yourself.

There are only three pleasures in life pure and lasting, and all derived from inanimate things-books, pictures and the face of nature.

The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men.

So I have loitered my life away, reading books, looking at pictures, going to plays, hearing, thinking, writing on what pleased me best. I have wanted only one thing to make me happy, but wanting that have wanted everything.

Time,--the most independent of all things.

If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.

Dandyism is a species of genius.

Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

Man is an intellectual animal, and therefore an everlasting contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces between the two, without a possibility of its ever being otherwise.

To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.

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

True friendship is self-love at second hand; where, as in a flattering mirror we may see our virtues magnified and our errors softened, and where we may fancy our opinion of ourselves confirmed by an impartial and faithful witness.

The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.

Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern. Why, then, should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?

A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.

Life is a continued struggle to be what we are not, and to do what we cannot.

He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.

Those people who are always improving never become great. Greatness is an eminence, the ascent to which is steep and lofty, and which a man must seize on at once by natural boldness and vigor, and not by patient, wary steps.

Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.

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

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.

Common sense, to most people, is nothing more than their own opinions.

Principle is a passion for truth.

Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.

The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.

Those who can command themselves command others.

A man knows his companion in a long journey and a little inn.

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

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

Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.

Genius only leaves behind it the monuments of its strength.

The insolence of the vulgar is in proportion to their ignorance. They treat everything with contempt which they do not understand.

If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.

Prejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason.

If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.

The devil was a great loss in the preternatural world. He was always something to fear and to hate; he supplied the antagonist powers of the imagination, and the arch of true religion hardly stands firm without him.

We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.

It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.

Words are the only things that last for ever.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.

Literature, like nobility, runs in the blood.

Silence is one great art of conversation.

Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.

Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

There is no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice.

Envy is littleness of soul.

When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country.

The way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.

A person who talks with equal vivacity on every subject, excites no interest in any. Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

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

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey; but I like to go by myself.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated.

Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.

Our lives are ruled by impermanence. The challenge is how to create something of enduring value within the context of our impermanent lives. Soka Gakkai Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.

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

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.

A thought must tell at once, or not at all.

The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.

The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

Poverty, when it is voluntary, is never despicable, but takes an heroical aspect.

A wise traveler never despises his own country.

Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.

I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be sure that he is not a knave as well.

People are not soured by misfortune, but by the reception they meet with in it.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

Landscape painting is the obvious resource of misanthropy.

Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.

The most learned are often the most narrow minded.

Love may turn to indifference with possession.

True friendship is self-love at second-hand.

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.

We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.

Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.

No really great man ever thought himself so.

Actors are the only honest hypocrites.

The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.

Those who speak ill of the spiritual life, although they come and go by day, are like the smith's bellows: they take breath but are not alive.

Do not quarrel with the world too soon; for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in, here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago.

While we desire, we do not enjoy; and with enjoyment desire ceases.

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.

The silence of a friend commonly amounts to treachery. His not daring to say anything in our behalf implies a tacit censure.

When I take up a book I have read before, I know what to expect; the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated. I shake hands with, and look our old tried and valued friend in the face,--compare notes and chat the hour away.

The worst old age is that of the mind.

The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.

The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.

Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.

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

Poverty, labor, and calamity are not without their luxuries, which the rich, the indolent, and the fortunate in vain seek for.

It is hard for any one to be an honest politician who is not born and bred a Dissenter.

We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have mouldered away gradually long before. Faculty after faculty, interest after interest, attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living.

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.

It is better to desire than to enjoy, to love than to be loved.

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.

The more we do, the more we can do.

There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.

Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to amuse themselves. It is partly practice and partly habit. It requires an effort in them to speak truth.

Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves.

We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.

Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.

Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

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

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.

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

The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.

Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.