William Hazlitt Quotes

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

~ William Hazlitt

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

~ William Hazlitt

If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.

~ William Hazlitt

Silence is one great art of conversation.

~ William Hazlitt

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

~ William Hazlitt

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.

~ William Hazlitt

Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.

~ William Hazlitt

There are names written in her immortal scroll at which Fame blushes!

~ William Hazlitt

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and what they might have been.

~ William Hazlitt

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.

~ William Hazlitt

The more we do, the more we can do.

~ William Hazlitt

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

~ William Hazlitt

The best way to procure insults is to submit to them.

~ William Hazlitt

Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out of maliscious imputations against any character leaves a stain which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavourable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said.

~ William Hazlitt