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
death dying consciousness
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
death dying action
A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.
death dying cures
The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life.
death country horse
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.
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.
death giving trouble
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern. Why, then, should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?
crowd nine power ten throw
Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination
best insults submit
The best way to procure insults is to submit to them.
arbitrary ballot power screen useful
The ballot is only useful as a screen from arbitrary power.
affairs confined daily men motives opportunity rest small study understanding
The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
english-critic great himself man truly
No truly great man ever thought himself so.
english-critic faults friend talk
I like a friend better for having faults that one can talk about.
carriage existence graceful heard indebted nose scarcely whose
A person may be indebted for a nose or an eye, for a graceful carriage or a voluble discourse, to a great-aunt or uncle, whose existence he has scarcely heard of.
body imagination life outset
At the outset of life . . . our imagination has a body to it.