The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice; but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue. William Hazlitt More Quotes by William Hazlitt More Quotes From William Hazlitt The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be. William Hazlitt businessmenpeople Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain. William Hazlitt consciousnessdyingdeath Despair swallows up cowardice. William Hazlitt cowardicedespair Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a good-natured man have a double effect. William Hazlitt honestmouthsmen The amiable is the voluptuous in expression or manner. The sense of pleasure in ourselves is that which excites it in others; or, the art of pleasing is to seem pleased. William Hazlitt pleasureexpressionart Those people who are always improving never become great. Greatness is an eminence, the ascent to which is steep and lofty, and which a man must seize on at once by natural boldness and vigor, and not by patient, wary steps. William Hazlitt greatnessmenpeople We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts. William Hazlitt courageappreciationthinking 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 horsecountrydeath 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 precisioneleganceease Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity. William Hazlitt painsuccesslife He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind. William Hazlitt greatnessmindideas What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if no one know there was such a person, and you wished no one to know it: it is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it; to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it. William Hazlitt thoughtfulselfmean Malice often takes the garb of truth. William Hazlitt wickednessmaliceevil Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others. William Hazlitt modestyhumilityreal We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self-will, more than of reason or even of self-interest. Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives. William Hazlitt passionlifefall Good temper is an estate for life. William Hazlitt estatestemperlife Abuse is an indirect species of homage. William Hazlitt indirectspeciesabuse When you find out a man's ruling passion, beware of crossing him in it. William Hazlitt rulingpassionmen The art of pleasing consists in being pleased. William Hazlitt art 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 selfishstupidmean
