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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

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William Hazlitt
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Painter
Philosopher
Writer
Wm. Haslett
William Carew Hazlitt
Even
Measure
Would
Neither
Men
Laws
Control
Virtue
Opinion
Public
Prejudices
Law
Prejudice

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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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The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue.
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Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.
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Popularity disarms envy in well-disposed minds. Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others who feel that the world has done them justice. When success has not this effect in opening the mind, it is a sign that it has been ill deserved.
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Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.
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Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.
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Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken
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The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.
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A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.
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Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?
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Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.
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Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.
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Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.
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Those only deserve a monument who do not need one.
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A thought must tell at once, or not at all.
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Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.
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From the height from which the great look down on the world all the rest of mankind seem equal.
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To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.
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Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.
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No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.
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