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
forget largest truest
Those who have the largest hearts, have the soundest understandings; and he is the truest philosopher who can forget himself.
absent account afterwards anywhere borrow destiny forget fulfil gave life objects painful recall spend themselves ties travelling wish
Those who wish to forget painful thoughts, do well to absent themselves for a while from the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home!
mind looks forget
A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.
old-friends forgotten forget
When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.
friends long forget
If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.
anniversary birthday celebrate man money monuments notice
When a man is dead, they put money in his coffin, erect monuments to his memory, and celebrate the anniversary of his birthday in set speeches. Would they take any notice of him if he were living? No!
work
When I take up a work that I have read before (the oftener the better) I know what I have to expect. The satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated.
afterwards anywhere borrow english-critic life spend traveling
I should like to spend the whole of my life in traveling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home.
playing
The world has been doing little else but playing at make-believe all its lifetime.
answering belief believe difference feeling left media paid spent swear truth turns
Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for -- they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?
cleanse either interests reform regularly renew revolution sacrificed whenever
So society, when out of order, which it is whenever the interests of the many are regularly and outrageously sacrificed to those of the few, must be repaired, and either a reform or a revolution cleanse its corruptions and renew its elasticity.
eagerness learning
That which any one has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportional eagerness and haste.
die gradually wholly
We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have moldered away gradually long before.
cease manner until
We never do anything well until we cease to think about the manner of doing it