Quotes By William Hazlitt

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.

The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

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

Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust; hatred alone is immortal.

Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.

The public have neither shame or gratitude.

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

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.

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.

It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.

A scholar is like a book written in a dead language. It is not every one that can read in it.

Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.

I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.

Dandyism is a variety of genius.

Reflection makes men cowards.

We must be doing something to be happy.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.