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William Hazlitt Biography

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was 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.

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William Hazlitt Quotes

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.

Lying, Men, Mercy, Profligacy, Reputation

If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power.

Delicacy, Person, Persons, Power

Pride goes before a fall, they say, And yet we often find, The folks who throw all pride away Most often fall behind.

Fall, Folks, Pride, Say, Throw

The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.

Actual, Assumption, Easier, Genius, Merit

The love of fame is too high and delicate a feeling in the mind to be mixed up with realities, it is a solitary abstraction. * * * A name "fast anchored in the deep abyss of time" is like a star twinkling in the firmament, cold, silent, distant, but eternal and sublime; and our transmitting one to posterity is as if we should contemplate our translation to the skies.

Fast, Names, Posterity, Reality, Skies, Stars

The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.

Achievement, Age, Art, Old, Past, Sciences

He who is as faithful to his principles as he is to himself is the true partisan.

Faithful, Partisan, Partisanship, Principles, True

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.

Choices, Flourishes, Genuine, Perspicuity, Style, Writing

To-day kings, to-marrow beggars, it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing.

Acting, Beggar, Beggars, Kings, Nothing

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.

Cause, Connections, Friendship, Prejudice, Thinking, Though

To think justly, we must understand what others mean. To know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds.

Justice, Justly, Mean, Think, Thinking, Value

We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self-will, more than of reason or even of self-interest. Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives.

Caprice, Fall, Life, Passion, Teacup, Transactions

Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.

Affectation, Body, Dress, Dresses, Mind, Necessary

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.

Hype, Piece, Pieces, Quackery, Things, Thinking

We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.

Acting, Order, Overact, Produce, Psychology

The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas.

Cities, City, Ideas, Living, Mind, Numbers

It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play.

Drama, Generously, Play, Remarkable

A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.

Deceives, Despises, Hype, Hypocrite, Respect

Love and joy are twins or born of each other.

Born, Joy, Love, Twins

We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

Circumstance, Excellence, Flatters, Friend, Mistress, Self

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