William Hazlitt

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

— William Hazlitt

There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a…

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.

— William Hazlitt

Painting for a whole morning gives one as excellent an appetite for one's dinner, as old Abraham Tucker acquired for his by…

— William Hazlitt

They [corporations] feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.

— William Hazlitt

Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman…

— William Hazlitt

Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account.…

— William Hazlitt

There is evil poured upon the earth from the overflowings of corruption-- Sickness, and poverty, and pain, and guilt, and madness, and…

— William Hazlitt

The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We…

— William Hazlitt

Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly and unconsciously; wit is the pointing out and ridiculing that absurdity consciously, and…

— William Hazlitt

Pride erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it.

— William Hazlitt

Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there…

— William Hazlitt

Without something to hate, we should lose the very spring of thought and action.

— William Hazlitt

“Thus, to give an obvious instance, if I have once enjoyed the cool shade of a tree, and been lulled into a…

— William Hazlitt

The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on…

— William Hazlitt

The secret of the difficulties of those people who make a great deal of money, and yet are always in want of…

— William Hazlitt

A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he is not making a fool of some other person.

— William Hazlitt

The last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty.

— William Hazlitt

Love may turn to indifference with possession.

— William Hazlitt

It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The…

— William Hazlitt

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

— William Hazlitt

We are governed by sympathy; and the extent of our sympathy is determined by that of our sensibility

— William Hazlitt

The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it…

— William Hazlitt

An honest man is respected by all parties.

— William Hazlitt