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
men good-man society
Every man depends on the quantity of sense, wit, or good manners he brings into society for the reception he meets with in it.
friendship embalming corpses
The corpse of friendship is not worth embalming.
friendship vanity amusement
Friendship is cemented by interest, vanity, or the want of amusement; it seldom implies esteem, or even mutual regard.
friends long forget
If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.
men play might
It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.
fool knaves wells
I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be sure that he is not a knave as well.
passion men letters
The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.
death causes youth
The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.
critics composition originals
The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.
business self owing
Success in business is seldom owing to uncommon talents or original power which is untractable and self-willed, but to the greatest degree of commonplace capacity.
book reading life-is
The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.
book heart wind
Books wind into the heart.
kings acting beggar
To-day kings, to-marrow beggars, it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing.
friendship children ties
The soil of friendship is worn out with constant use. Habit may still attach us to each other, but we feel ourselves fettered by it. Old friends might be compared to old married people without the tie of children.