William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlittwas an English writer, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Despite his high standing among historians of literature and art, his work is currently little read and mostly out of print...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth10 April 1778
kings men dignity
A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
greatness dignity shrinks
...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.
men ideas dignity
A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.
pleasure wells
Knowledge is pleasure as well as power.
book ignorance people
I maintain that there is no common language or medium of understanding between people of education and without it - between those who judge of things from books or from their senses. Ignorance has so far the advantage over learning; for it can make an appeal to you from what you know; but you cannot re-act upon it through that which it is a perfect stranger to. Ignorance is, therefore, power.
business men people
The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.
women reason
Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.
art communication silence
Silence is one great art of conversation.
peace littles might
If our hours were all serene, we might probably take almost as little note of them as the dial does of those that are clouded.
journey doors world
One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey; I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.
air exotic soil
Genius is a native to the soil where it grows - is fed by the air, and warmed by the sun; and is not a hothouse plant or an exotic
thinking may kind
The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.
confidence wish delight
Gallantry to women - the sure road to their favor - is nothing but the appearance of extreme devotion to all their wants and wishes, a delight in their satisfaction, and a confidence in yourself as being able to contribute toward it
competition progress doe
When one can do better than everyone else in the same walk, one does not make any very painful exertions to outdo oneself. The progress of improvement ceases nearly at the point where competition ends.