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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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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
People
Weakness
Ostentation
Failing
Failings
Office
Weaknesses
Virtue
Confession
Less
Modesty
Thought
Sincerity
Seems
Virtues
Savors
Good
Honesty
Thankless

More quotes by William Hazlitt

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It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.
William Hazlitt
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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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Every man, in judging of himself, is his own contemporary. He may feel the gale of popularity, but he cannot tell how long it will last. His opinion of himself wants distance, wants time, wants numbers, to set it off and confirm it.
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To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
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Rules and models destroy genius and art.
William Hazlitt
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None but those who are happy in themselves can make others so.
William Hazlitt
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In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.
William Hazlitt
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Literature, like nobility, runs in the blood.
William Hazlitt
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We all wear some disguise, make some professions, use some artifice, to set ourselves off as being better than we are and yet it is not denied that we have some good intentions and praiseworthy qualities at bottom.
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Art is the microscope of the mind, which sharpens the wit as the other does the sight and converts every object into a little universe in itself. Art may be said to draw aside the veil from nature. To those who are perfectly unskilled in the practice, unimbued with the principles of art, most objects present only a confused mass.
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...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.
William Hazlitt
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We are governed by sympathy and the extent of our sympathy is determined by that of our sensibility
William Hazlitt
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Those who object to wit are envious of it.
William Hazlitt
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Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others, who feel that the world has done them justice.
William Hazlitt
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The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
William Hazlitt
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Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust hatred alone is immortal.
William Hazlitt
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Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.
William Hazlitt
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Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.
William Hazlitt
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The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass to their daily affairs and experience to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
William Hazlitt
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We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
William Hazlitt