William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlittwas 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...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth10 April 1778
pride abstract circumstances
Wrong dressed out in pride, pomp, and circumstance has more attraction than abstract right.
pride justice community
The great have private feelings of their own, to which the interests of humanity and justice must curtsy. Their interests are so far from being the same as those of the community, that they are in direct and necessary opposition to them; their power is at the expense of OUR weakness; their riches of OUR poverty; their pride of OUR degradation; their splendour of OUR wretchedness; their tyranny of OUR servitude.
littles left
Those who have little shall have less, and that those who have much shall take all that others have left.
old-friends forgotten forget
When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.
eye thinking clouds
However we may flatter ourselves to the contrary, our friends think no higher of us than the world do. They see us through the jaundiced or distrustful eyes of others. They may know better, but their feelings are governed by popular prejudice. Nay, they are more shy of us (when under a cloud) than even strangers; for we involve them in a common disgrace, or compel them to embroil themselves in continual quarrels and disputes in our defense.
home night rustic
Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.
punishment may vices
The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice; but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue.
disappointment proud lasts
To the proud the slightest repulse or disappointment is the last indignity.
women break-through modesty
The affected modesty of most women is a decoy for the generous, the delicate, and unsuspecting; while the artful, the bold, and unfeeling either see or break through its slender disguises.
wise men giving
Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.
pride kingdoms sovereign
Pride erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it.
envious wit objects
Those who object to wit are envious of it.
women vanity coquette
Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.
country mistake women
With women, the great business of life is love; and they generally make a mistake in it. They consult neither the heart nor the head, but are led away by mere humour and fancy. If instead of a companion for life, they had to choose a partner in a country-dance or to trifle away an hour with, their mode of calculation would be right. They tie their true-lover's knot with idle, thoughtless haste, while the institutions of society render it indissoluble.