William Hazlitt Quotes

Author Image

William Hazlitt

Profession : Critic

Birth : April 10, 1778

Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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.

William Hazlitt

No truly great person ever thought themselves so.

William Hazlitt

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.

William Hazlitt

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

William Hazlitt

The busier we are the more leisure we have.

William Hazlitt

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.

William Hazlitt

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.

William Hazlitt

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

William Hazlitt

I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt

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.

William Hazlitt

Reflection makes men cowards.

William Hazlitt

He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.

William Hazlitt

Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.

William Hazlitt

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

William Hazlitt