Quote

We prefer a person with vivacity and high spirits, though bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pusillanimous we are fonder of wit joined to malice than of dullness without it.

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
Persons
Joined
Pusillanimous
Person
Spirits
Fonder
Without
Wit
Bordering
Prefer
Vivacity
High
Insolence
Though
Dullness
Upon
Timid
Spirit
Malice

More quotes by William Hazlitt

Image
Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see beyond a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space feels itself excluded.
William Hazlitt
Image
A man is a hypocrite only when he affects to take a delight in what he does not feel, not because he takes a perverse delight in opposite things.
William Hazlitt
Image
Keep your misfortunes to yourself.
William Hazlitt
Image
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.
William Hazlitt
Image
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.
William Hazlitt
Image
Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.
William Hazlitt
Image
Those who can command themselves command others.
William Hazlitt
Image
The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way ... an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.
William Hazlitt
Image
Features alone do not run in the blood vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.
William Hazlitt
Image
We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
William Hazlitt
Image
I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.
William Hazlitt
Image
A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
William Hazlitt
Image
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
Image
But of all footmen the lowest class is literary footmen.
William Hazlitt
Image
A person who talks with equal vivacity on every subject, excites no interest in any. Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.
William Hazlitt
Image
Many a man would have turned rogue if he knew how.
William Hazlitt
Image
Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from, the ties and objects that recall them but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth.
William Hazlitt
Image
Dandyism is a species of genius.
William Hazlitt
Image
No truly great person ever thought themselves so.
William Hazlitt
Image
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.
William Hazlitt