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If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.

William Hazlitt

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Force
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Wish
Shakespeare
May
Intelligence
Human
Genius
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Insignificance

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None but those who are happy in themselves can make others so.
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Gallantry to women - the sure road to their favor - is nothing but the appearance of extreme devotion to all their wants and wishes, a delight in their satisfaction, and a confidence in yourself as being able to contribute toward it
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A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.
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Despair swallows up cowardice.
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Literature, like nobility, runs in the blood.
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We are not hypocrites in our sleep.
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Books are a world in themselves, it is true but they are not the only world. The world itself is a volume larger than all the libraries in it.
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We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.
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A distinction has been made between acuteness and subtlety of understanding. This might be illustrated by saying that acuteness consists in taking up the points or solid atoms, subtlety in feeling the air of truth.
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Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.
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We are thankful for good-will rather than for services, for the motive than the quantum of favor received.
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Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
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The book-worm wraps himself up in his web of verbal generalities, and sees only the glimmering shadows of things reflected from the minds of others.
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Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.
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Love may turn to indifference with possession.
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One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey I can enjoy society in a room but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.
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The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.
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Vice is man's nature: virtue is a habit -- or a mask. . . . The foregoing maxim shows the difference between truth and sarcasm.
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By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to despise ourselves.
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Learning is its own exceeding great reward and at the period of which we speak, it bore other fruits, not unworthy of it.
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