Quote

Elegance is something more than ease it is more than a freedom from awkwardness or restraint. It implies, I conceive, a precision, a polish, a sparkling, spirited yet delicate.

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
Conceive
Polish
Elegance
Restraint
Awkwardness
Delicate
Sparkling
Ease
Spirited
Freedom
Precision
Something
Implies

More quotes by William Hazlitt

Image
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.
William Hazlitt
Image
The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.
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
Do not quarrel with the world too soon for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in, here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago.
William Hazlitt
Image
If our hours were all serene, we might probably take almost as little note of them as the dial does of those that are clouded.
William Hazlitt
Image
To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.
William Hazlitt
Image
Actors are the only honest hypocrites.
William Hazlitt
Image
Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.
William Hazlitt
Image
The wretched are in this respect fortunate, that they have the strongest yearning after happiness and to desire is in some sense to enjoy.
William Hazlitt
Image
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
William Hazlitt
Image
It is only necessary to raise a bugbear before the English imagination in order to govern it at will. Whatever they hate or fear, they implicitly believe in, merely from the scope it gives to these passions.
William Hazlitt
Image
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
William Hazlitt
Image
Prosperity is a great teacher adversity a greater.
William Hazlitt
Image
The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.
William Hazlitt
Image
The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.
William Hazlitt
Image
Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.
William Hazlitt
Image
Genius only leaves behind it the monuments of its strength.
William Hazlitt
Image
Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to amuse themselves. It is partly practice and partly habit. It requires an effort in them to speak truth.
William Hazlitt
Image
Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.
William Hazlitt
Image
There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character.
William Hazlitt