William Hazlitt Quotes

If love at first sight were mutual, or to be conciliated by kind offices; if the fondest affection were not so often repaid and chilled by indifference and scorn; if so many lovers both before and since the madman in Don Quixote had not ‘worshipped a statue, hunted the wind, cried aloud to the desert’; if friendship were lasting; if merit were renown, and renown were health, riches, and long life; or if the homage of the world were paid to conscious worth and the true aspirations after excellence, instead of its gaudy signs and outward trappings, then indeed I might be of opinion that it is better to live to others than one’s self; but as the case stands, I incline to the negative side of the question.

Hay quienes, con este mismo fin, se marchan a la costa y cargan con ellos la metrópoli; yo prefiero un espacio vital mayor y menores estorbos.

The perceiving our own weaknesses enables us to give others excellent advice, but it does not teach us to to reform ourselves.

The player envies only the player, the poet envies only the poet.

I'm not smart, but I like to observe.
Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why,

This Journal, then, is a depository for every species of political sophistry and personal calumny. There is no abuse or corruption that does not there find a jesuitical palliation or a bare-faced vindication. There we meet the slime of hypocrisy, the varnish of courts, the cant of pedantry, the cobwebs of the law, the iron hand of power. Its object is as mischievous as the means by which it is pursued are odious.

Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.

You know more of a road by having travelled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

Repose is necessary to great efforts, and he who is never idle, labours in vain!

Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.

The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men.

The florid style is the reverse of the familiar. The last is employed as an unvarnished medium to convey ideas; the first is resorted to as a spangled veil to conceal the want of them. When there is nothing to be set down but words, it costs little to have them fine.

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.