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
satisfied prove
We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong.
wise men levels
Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.
quality use good-intentions
We all wear some disguise, make some professions, use some artifice, to set ourselves off as being better than we are; and yet it is not denied that we have some good intentions and praiseworthy qualities at bottom.
thinking reason-why language
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.
honesty earnest eloquence
Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.
heaven care next
Those who have had none of the cares of this life to harass and disturb them, have been obliged to have recourse to the hopes and fears of the next to vary the prospect before them.
relief sometimes natural
The greatest grossness sometimes accompanies the greatest refinement, as a natural relief.
light looks earth
What are the publications that succeed? Those that pretend to teach the public that the persons they have been accustomed unwittingly to look up to as the lights of the earth are no better than themselves.
religion cloaks
The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.
rights reform settings
Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.
men mind speak
To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.
regret truth able
One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.
religious time pain
Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.
taste knows
Those who are pleased with the fewest things know the least, as those who are pleased with everything know nothing.