Quote

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. 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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Littles
Hype
Better
Entertain
Little
Deceiving
Things
Esteem
Think
Piece
Displease
Thinking
Please
Quackery
Pieces
Profess
Truth
Deceive

More quotes by William Hazlitt

Image
The mind revolts against certain opinions, as the stomach rejects certain foods.
William Hazlitt
Image
Pride goes before a fall, they say, And yet we often find, The folks who throw all pride away Most often fall behind.
William Hazlitt
Image
We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
William Hazlitt
Image
The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.
William Hazlitt
Image
A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he is not making a fool of some other person.
William Hazlitt
Image
Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.
William Hazlitt
Image
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
William Hazlitt
Image
Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.
William Hazlitt
Image
The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.
William Hazlitt
Image
We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as they are passing out at the door, we never set eyes on them again.
William Hazlitt
Image
The essence of poetry is will and passion.
William Hazlitt
Image
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
William Hazlitt
Image
The Princess Borghese, Bonaparte's sister, who was no saint, sat to Canova as a reclining Venus, and being asked if she did not feel a little uncomfortable, replied, No. There was a fire in the room.
William Hazlitt
Image
He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.
William Hazlitt
Image
The vain man makes a merit of misfortune, and triumphs in his disgrace.
William Hazlitt
Image
We prefer ourselves to others, only because we a have more intimate consciousness and confirmed opinion of our own claims and merits than of any other person's.
William Hazlitt
Image
It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed.
William Hazlitt
Image
There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.
William Hazlitt
Image
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
William Hazlitt
Image
People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.
William Hazlitt