Quotes from William Hazlitt

There is nothing good to be had in the country, or, if there be, they will not let you have it.

The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.

Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.

There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

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.

Those who have the largest hearts have the soundest understandings; and they are the truest philosophers who can forget themselves.

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

One said a tooth drawer was a kind of unconscionable trade, because his trade was nothing else but to take away those things whereby every man gets his living.

The most learned are often the most narrow minded.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

A lively blockhead in company is a public benefit. Silence or dulness by the side of folly looks like wisdom.

There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.

An honest man is respected by all parties.

The truly proud man knows neither superiors or inferiors. The first he does not admit of - the last he does not concern himself about.

The vain man makes a merit of misfortune, and triumphs in his disgrace.

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

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

The public have neither shame or gratitude.

Envy is the most universal passion. We only pride ourselves on the qualities we possess or think we possess; but we envy the pretensions we have, and those which we have not, and do not even wish for. We envy the greatest qualities and every trifling advantage. We envy the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of superiority. We envy folly and conceit; nay, we go so far as to envy whatever confers distinction or notoriety, even vice and infamy.

Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see behind a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space, feels itself excluded.

Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Women never reason, and therefore they are (comparatively) seldom wrong.

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.