“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
Truth
“Rules and models destroy genius and art.”
— William Hazlitt
Art
“Prosperity is a great teacher adversity a greater.”
— William Hazlitt
Teacher
“No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.”
— William Hazlitt
History
“The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.”
— William Hazlitt
Friendship
“The seat of knowledge is in the head of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.”
— William Hazlitt
Knowledge
“You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.”
— William Hazlitt
Travel
“There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.”
— William Hazlitt
Respect
“The love of liberty is the love of others the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
— William Hazlitt
Power
“If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.”
— William Hazlitt
Faith
“Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.”
— William Hazlitt
Nature
“Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.”
— William Hazlitt
Death
“The incentive to ambition is the love of power.”
— William Hazlitt
Power
“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.”
— William Hazlitt
Food
“A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.”
— William Hazlitt
Best
“Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.”
— William Hazlitt
Friendship
“Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.”
— William Hazlitt
Best
“There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.”
— William Hazlitt
Friendship
“Learning is its own exceeding great reward.”
— William Hazlitt
Learning
“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
Education