William Hazlitt

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.

The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.

the old maxim. . . "there are three things necessary to success in life--Impudence! Impudence! Impudence!,The path of genius is free, and its own,Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our,He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.

The world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors.

The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.

Words are the only things that last for ever.

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

I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them.

THE rule for travelling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind us. The object of travelling is to see and learn; but such is our impatience of ignorance, or the jealousy of our self-love, that we generally set up a certain preconception beforehand (in self-defence, or as a barrier against the lessons of experience,) and are surprised at or quarrel with all that does not conform to it. Let us think what we please of what we really find, but pr,The perceiving our own weaknesses enables us to give others excellent advice, but it does not teach us to to reform ourselves.

Love turns, with little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal.

Good-nature, or what is often considered as such, is the most selfish of all the virtues: it is nine times out of ten mere indolence of disposition.

A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.

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

Modern fanaticism thrives in proportion to the quanitity of contradictions and nonsense it poures down the throats of the gaping multitude, and the jargon and mysticism it offers to their wonder and credulity.

Rome has been called the "Sacred City": - might not our Oxford be called so too? There is an air about it, resonant of joy and hope: it speaks with a thousand tongues to the heart: it waves its mighty shadow over the imagination: it stands in lowly sublimity, on the "hill of ages"; and points with prophetic fingers to the sky: it greets the eager gaze from afar, "with glistering spires and pinnacles adorned," that shine with an internal light as with the lustre of setting suns; and a dream and a glory hover round its head, as the spirits of former times, a throng of intellectual shapes, are seen retreating or advancing to the eye of memory: its streets are paved with the names of learning that can never wear out: its green quadrangles breathe the silence of thought.

Sacrifices are no sacrifices when they are repaid a thousand fold.

Repose is necessary to great efforts, and he who is never idle, labours in vain!,Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.

Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.

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.

We occasionally see something on the stage that reminds us a,If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may only study his commentators. ["On the Ignorance of the Learned"],In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.

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 might have been.

Actors are the only honest hypocrites.

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

The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way: an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.

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

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

We must be doing something to be happy.

Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty hesitation or incongruity.

We may be willing to tell a story twice never to hear it more than once.

Wit is the salt of conversation not the food.

Silence is one great art of conversation.

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

Reason with most people means their own opinions.

The soul of dispatch is decision.

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: The one thinks everything right that is French the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.

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

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way . . . an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.

Faith is necessary to victory.

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

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

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

It is well there is no one without fault for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to a different species.

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.

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.

We often choose a friend as we do a mistress for no particular excellence in themselves but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

True friendship is self-love at second hand.

We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves.

Man is a make-believe animal - he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and what they might have been.

None are completely wretched but those who are without hope and few are reduced so low as that.

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.

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

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

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 unfavourable impression it is not necessary that certain things should be true but that they have been said.

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

All that men really understand is confined to a very small compass to their daily affairs and experience to what they have an opportunity to know and motives to study or practise. The rest is affectation and imposture.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state. We must be doing something to be happy.

To get others to come into our ways of thinking we must go over to theirs and it is necessary to follow in order to lead.

None but those who are happy in themselves can make others so.

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.

Those only deserve a monument who do not need one.

We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room.

Wit is the salt of conversation not the food.

Those who are fond of setting things to rights have no great objection to setting them wrong.

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.

Landscape painting is the obvious resource of misanthropy.

As is our confidence so is our capacity.

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

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

The truly proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion and does not seek to make converts to it.

The public have neither shame nor gratitude.

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 might have been.

It is essential to the triumph of reform that it shall never succeed.

We had as lief not be as not be ourselves.

If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may study his commentators.

Learning is the knowledge of that which none but the learned know.

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

As is our confidence so is our capacity.

The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.

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

If a person has no delicacy he has you in his power.

There is nothing good to be had in the country or if there be they will not let you have it.

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

Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.

Horus non numero nisi serenas (I count only the sunny hours).

One truth discovered one pang of regret at not being able to express it is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.

Wit is the salt of conversation not the food.

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style, is to write as any one 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

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

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

Prosperity is a great teacher adversity a greater.

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.

Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!,Learning is its own exceeding great reward.

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

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

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

If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

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.

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

We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts.

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.

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

A wise traveler never despises his own country.

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

A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.

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

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.

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

The more we do, the more we can do.

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

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.

Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.

Reflection makes men cowards.

Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust; hatred alone is immortal. .