Quotes By William Hazlitt

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.

We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.

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

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

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!

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

Good temper is one of the greatest preservers of the features.

Everything is in motion. Everything flows. Everything is vibrating.

The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.

The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.

A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.

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

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.

We can scarcely hate anyone that we know.

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

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

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

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

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

No young man ever thinks he shall die.

We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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