To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.
William HazlittOur repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
William HazlittThere is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.
William HazlittEvery man, in judging of himself, is his own contemporary. He may feel the gale of popularity, but he cannot tell how long it will last. His opinion of himself wants distance, wants time, wants numbers, to set it off and confirm it.
William HazlittIt is hard for any one to be an honest politician who is not born and bred a Dissenter.
William HazlittIf goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will -the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.
William Hazlitt