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
exercise opportunity thinking
It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition ... This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good, and to plague and disappoint as many people, as possible.
friendship thinking prejudice
Natural affection is a prejudice; for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.
eye thinking clouds
However we may flatter ourselves to the contrary, our friends think no higher of us than the world do. They see us through the jaundiced or distrustful eyes of others. They may know better, but their feelings are governed by popular prejudice. Nay, they are more shy of us (when under a cloud) than even strangers; for we involve them in a common disgrace, or compel them to embroil themselves in continual quarrels and disputes in our defense.
mean thinking justice
To think justly, we must understand what others mean. To know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds.
thinking intellectual quality
In love we do not think of moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and manner alone, with beauty, excite love.
thinking fool knavery
A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he is not making a fool of some other person.
exercise thinking ideas
The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.
thinking advice sage
We do not attend to the advice of the sage and experienced because we think they are old, forgetting that they once were young and placed in the same situations as ourselves.
thinking men young
No young man ever thinks he shall die.
thinking wish virtue
To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.
thinking prejudice barbarians
The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
thinking quality complaining
The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.
self-esteem thinking people
The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.
thinking order way
To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.