William Hazlitt Quotes

The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.

Sacrifices are no sacrifices when they are repaid a thousand fold.

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

Good-nature, or what is often considered as such, is the most selfish of all the virtues: it is nine times out of ten mere indolence of disposition.

Good temper is an estate for life…

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

One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.

Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.

Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

All that is worth remembering in life, is the poetry of it.

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

Gallantry to women (the sure road to their favor) is nothing but the appearance of extreme devotion to all their wants and wishes, a delight in their satisfaction, and a confidence in yourself as being able to contribute toward it.

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