William Hazlitt quotes

“No truly great person ever thought themselves so.”

— William Hazlitt

“Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.”

— William Hazlitt

“People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.”

— William Hazlitt

“Reflection makes men cowards.”

— William Hazlitt

“That which is not, shall never be; that which is, shall never cease to be. To the wise, these truths are self-evident.”

— William Hazlitt

“The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.”

— William Hazlitt

“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.”

— William Hazlitt

“The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.”

— William Hazlitt

“Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.”

— William Hazlitt

“To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.”

— William Hazlitt

“To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.”

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.”

— 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

“Dandyism is a variety of genius.”

— William Hazlitt

“Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.”

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

“Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.”

— William Hazlitt

“He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.”

— William Hazlitt

“I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.”

— William Hazlitt

“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.”

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

“Learning is its own exceeding great reward.”

— William Hazlitt

“No young man ever thinks he shall die.”

— William Hazlitt

“Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.”

— William Hazlitt

“One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.”

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

“Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.”

— William Hazlitt