Quote

Whatever excites the spirit of contradiction is capable of producing the last effects of heroism which is only the highest pitch of obstinacy, in a good or bad cause, in wisdom or folly.

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
Spirit
Effects
Obstinacy
Good
Highest
Excites
Cause
Pitch
Wisdom
Heroism
Causes
Producing
Whatever
Contradiction
Lasts
Folly
Last
Capable

More quotes by William Hazlitt

Image
Fashion constantly begins and ends in the two things it abhors most, singularity and vulgarity.
William Hazlitt
Image
We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.
William Hazlitt
Image
We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.
William Hazlitt
Image
Those only deserve a monument who do not need one.
William Hazlitt
Image
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
Image
Principle is a passion for truth.
William Hazlitt
Image
An honest man is respected by all parties.
William Hazlitt
Image
Anyone who has passed though the regular gradations of a classical education, and is not made a fool by it, may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape.
William Hazlitt
Image
Habit in most cases hardens and encrusts by taking away the keener edge of our sensations: but does it not in others quicken and refine, by giving a mechanical facility and by engrafting an acquired sense?
William Hazlitt
Image
Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
William Hazlitt
Image
I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.
William Hazlitt
Image
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.
William Hazlitt
Image
Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.
William Hazlitt
Image
Natural affection is a prejudice for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.
William Hazlitt
Image
No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.
William Hazlitt
Image
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
Image
Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.
William Hazlitt
Image
There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.
William Hazlitt
Image
First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions. A man's look is the work of years, it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.
William Hazlitt
Image
Habit is necessary to give power.
William Hazlitt