If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago. — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers. — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them. — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
If our hours were all serene, we might probably take almost as little note of them as the dial does of those… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see beyond a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
To expect an author to talk as he writes is ridiculous; or even if he did you would find fault with him… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
If we use no ceremony towards others, we shall be treated without any. People are soon tired of paying trifling attentions to… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
In art, in taste, in life, in speech, you decide from feeling, and not from reason ... If we were obliged to… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
The Princess Borghese, Bonaparte's sister, who was no saint, sat to Canova as a reclining Venus, and being asked if she did… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
There is a quiet repose and steadiness about the happiness of age, if the life has been well spent. Its feebleness is… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
We can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
We had rather do anything than acknowledge the merit of another if we can help it. We cannot bear a superior or… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
The love of fame is too high and delicate a feeling in the mind to be mixed up with realities, it is… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass ""no day without… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
People try to reconcile you to a disappointment in love by asking why you should cherish a passion for an object that… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
With women, the great business of life is love; and they generally make a mistake in it. They consult neither the heart… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
We cannot by a little verbal sophistry confound the qualities of different minds, nor force opposite excellences into a union by all… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
You will hear more good things on the outside of a stagecoach from London to Oxford than if you were to pass… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
In public speaking, we must appeal either to the prejudices of others, or to the love of truth and justice. If we… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Do not quarrel with the world too soon; for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as they are passing out at the door, we never… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not,… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
There are persons who are never easy unless they are putting your books and papers in order--that is, according to their notions… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not infrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible… — William Hazlitt Copy Share
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
We are thankful for good-will rather than for services, for the motive than the quantum of favor received. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
The discussing the characters and foibles of common friends is a great sweetness and cement of friendship. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
Want of principle is power. Truth and honesty set a limit to our efforts, which impudence and hypocrisy easily overleap. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner doing it. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things… — William Hazlitt Copy Share
Those who have had none of the cares of this life to harass and disturb them, have been obliged to have recourse to the… — William Hazlitt Copy Share
Poverty, when it is voluntary, is never despicable, but takes an heroical aspect. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong. — William Hazlitt Copy Share
The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test: for it is on… — William Hazlitt Copy Share
