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
justice judging prejudice
Familiarity confounds all traits of distinction; interest and prejudice take away the power of judging.
wisdom heart judging
The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.
mean judging people
You shall yourself be judge. Reason, with most people, means their own opinion.
character eye judging
We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them; and a lucky hit, either in business or reputation, improves even their personal appearance in our eyes.
self giving judging
We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.
cannot errors lasting ourselves
It is not the errors of others, but our own miscalculations, on which we wreak our lasting vengeance. It is ourselves that we cannot forgive.
allowed counting distance leisure march simple steps
Surely, nothing is more simple than Time. His march is straightforward; but we should have leisure allowed us to look back upon the distance we have come, and not be counting his steps every moment.
body clear held mind obvious therefore
The accomplishments of the body are obvious and clear to all: those of the mind are recondite and doubtful, and therefore grudgingly acknowledged, or held up as the sport of prejudice, spite, and folly.
baffling chiefly consists expectation
The are of will-making chiefly consists in baffling the importunity of expectation.
eagerness learning
That which any one has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportional eagerness and haste.
against beware branded degrading exercise idol liable power render rests themselves turns
The power rests with the multitude, but let them beware how the exercise of it turns against their own rights! It is not the idol but the worshippers that are to be dreaded, and who, by degrading one of their fellows, render themselves liable to be branded with the same indignities.
fewer good immediate impression judge less men objects truly women
Women have often more of what is called good sense then men. They have fewer pretensions; are less implicated in theories; and judge of objects more from their immediate and involuntary impression on the mind, and, therefore, more truly and naturally.
good repent
We as often repent the good we have done as the ill.
highest ill mankind perhaps wisdom wish
To think ill of mankind, and not to wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.