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Friends
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The most violent friendships soonest wear themselves out.
-William Hazlitt
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There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our friends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please --that is, as they please or displease us.
-William Hazlitt
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There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.
-William Hazlitt
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There are persons who cannot make friends. Who are they? Those who cannot be friends. It is not the want of understanding or good nature, of entertaining or useful qualities, that you complain of: on the contrary, they have probably many points of attraction; but they have one that neutralizes all these --they care nothing about you, and are neither the better nor worse for what you think of them. They manifest no joy at your approach; and when you leave them, it is with a feeling that they can do just as well without you. This is not sullenness, nor indifference, nor absence of mind; but they are intent solely on their own thoughts, and you are merely one of the subjects they exercise them upon. They live in society as in a solitude.
-William Hazlitt
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Genius
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The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously; and those who have produced immortal works, have done so without knowing how or why. The greatest power operates unseen.
-William Hazlitt
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Goodness
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If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will --the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.
-William Hazlitt
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Grace
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Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
-William Hazlitt
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Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
-William Hazlitt
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Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
-William Hazlitt
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Gratitude
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The public have neither shame or gratitude.
-William Hazlitt
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Greatness & Great Things
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No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
-William Hazlitt
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Happiness
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Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.
-William Hazlitt
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Hate
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We can scarcely hate anyone that we know.
-William Hazlitt
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Help
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We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
-William Hazlitt
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Honesty
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The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.
-William Hazlitt
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Hope
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Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
-William Hazlitt
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Humility
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Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.
-William Hazlitt
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No truly great person ever thought themselves so.
-William Hazlitt
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Humor
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Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
-William Hazlitt
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Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
-William Hazlitt
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Hurt, Injury
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An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
-William Hazlitt
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Hypocrisy
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The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.
-William Hazlitt
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A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.
-William Hazlitt
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Identity
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We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
-William Hazlitt
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A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.
-William Hazlitt
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Books by and about William Hazlitt