William Hazlitt Quotes

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William Hazlitt

Profession : Critic

Birth : April 10, 1778

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

William Hazlitt

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.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

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 person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favor.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature.

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.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

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

The truly proud man knows neither superiors or inferiors. The first he does not admit of - the last he does not concern himself about.

William Hazlitt

Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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.

William Hazlitt