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
actual alone ignorance monsters
Ignorance alone makes monsters or bug-bears; our actual acquaintances are all very common-place people.
art real ignorance
Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty; but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.
ignorance knowledge science
The origin of all science is the desire to know causes, and the origin of all false science is the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance.
ignorance conversation former
There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.
ignorance evil world
The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.
ignorance proportion insolence
The insolence of the vulgar is in proportion to their ignorance. They treat everything with contempt which they do not understand.
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.
ignorance mind prejudice
Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the constitution of the human mind itself.
education children ignorance
Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
against beware branded degrading exercise idol liable power render rests themselves turns
The power rests with the multitude, but let them beware how the exercise of it turns against their own rights! It is not the idol but the worshippers that are to be dreaded, and who, by degrading one of their fellows, render themselves liable to be branded with the same indignities.
fewer good immediate impression judge less men objects truly women
Women have often more of what is called good sense then men. They have fewer pretensions; are less implicated in theories; and judge of objects more from their immediate and involuntary impression on the mind, and, therefore, more truly and naturally.
good repent
We as often repent the good we have done as the ill.
highest ill mankind perhaps wisdom wish
To think ill of mankind, and not to wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.
chiefly free journey leave muse ourselves rid
We go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences; to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others. It is because I want a little breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters. . . .