Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food. William Hazlitt More Quotes by William Hazlitt More Quotes From William Hazlitt It is only those who never think at all, or else who have accustomed themselves to blood invariably on abstract ideas, that ever feel ennui. William Hazlitt blood ideas thinking Persons without education certainly do not want either acuteness or strength of mind in what concerns themselves, or in things immediately within their observation; but they have no power of abstraction, no general standard of taste, or scale of opinion. They see their objects always near, and never in the horizon. Hence arises that egotism which has been remarked as the characteristic of self-taught men. William Hazlitt self mind men Vice, like disease, floats in the atmosphere. William Hazlitt atmosphere disease vices Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted. William Hazlitt life order art Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another. William Hazlitt merit personality character No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others; and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he. William Hazlitt parent wise men Tears may be considered as the natural and involuntary resource of the mind overcome by some sudden and violent emotion, before ithas had time to reconcile its feelings to the change in circumstances: while laughter may be defined to be the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere sur prise or contrast (in the absence of any more serious emotion), before it has time to reconcile its belief to contradictory appearances. William Hazlitt laughter mind feelings Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly and unconsciously; wit is the pointing out and ridiculing that absurdity consciously, and with more or less ill-nature. William Hazlitt wit humour funny It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things. William Hazlitt passion struggle mind A lively blockhead in company is a public benefit. Silence or dulness by the side of folly looks like wisdom. William Hazlitt benefits silence looks 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. The heaviest charge we can bring against the general texture of society is that it is commonplace. Our fancied superiority to others is in some one thing which we think most of because we excel in it, or have paid most attention to it; whilst we overlook their superiority to us in something else which they set equal and exclusive store by. William Hazlitt wise men thinking The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us. William Hazlitt quality complaining thinking Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune. William Hazlitt envy justice love Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the constitution of the human mind itself. William Hazlitt prejudice ignorance mind We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth of facts in the other. William Hazlitt romance reading facts The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement. William Hazlitt achievement past art Tyrants forego all respect for humanity in proportion as they are sunk beneath it. Taught to believe themselves of a different species, they really become so, lose their participation with their kind, and in mimicking the god dwindle into the brute. William Hazlitt tyrants humanity believe Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope. William Hazlitt cutting hope evil Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves. William Hazlitt eloquence earnest honesty Those who have had none of the cares of this life to harass and disturb them, have been obliged to have recourse to the hopes and fears of the next to vary the prospect before them. William Hazlitt next care heaven
