William Hazlitt
The corpse of friendship is not worth embalming.Collection: Friendship
It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.Collection: Men
By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.Collection: Hurt
If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power.Collection: Power
We would willingly, and without remorse, sacrifice not only the present moment, but all the interval (no matter how long) that separates us from any favorite object.Collection: Sacrifice
When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.Collection: Old Friends
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.Collection: Ignorance
The objects that we have known in better days are the main props that sustain the weight of our affections, and give us strength to await our future lot.Collection: Giving
Painting for a whole morning gives one as excellent an appetite for one's dinner, as old Abraham Tucker acquired for his by riding over Banstead Downs.Collection: Morning
Liberty is the only true riches: of all the rest we are at once the masters and the slaves.Collection: Freedom
Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.Collection: Greatness
You are never tired of painting, because you have to set down not what you know already, but what you have just discovered.Collection: Tired
I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.Collection: Hate
I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for meCollection: Nature
Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.Collection: Common Sense
To think justly, we must understand what others mean. To know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds.Collection: Mean
Pride goes before a fall, they say, And yet we often find, The folks who throw all pride away Most often fall behind.Collection: Fall
Our contempt for others proves nothing but the illiberality and narrowness of our own views.Collection: Views
The history of mankind is a romance, a mask, a tragedy, constructed upon the principles of POETICAL JUSTICE; it is a noble or royal hunt, in which what is sport to the few is death to the many, and in which the spectators halloo and encourage the strong to set upon the weak, and cry havoc in the chase, though they do not share in the spoil.Collection: Sports
Avarice is the miser's dream, as fame is the poet's.Collection: Dream
The more you do, the more you can do.Collection: Encouraging
He who lives wisely to himself and his own heart looks at the busy world through the loopholes of retreat, and does not want to mingle in the fray.Collection: Retirement
A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.Collection: Lying
Painting gives the object itself; poetry what it implies. Painting embodies what a thing contains in itself; poetry suggests what exists out of it, in any manner connected with it.Collection: Giving
When the imagination is continually led to the brink of vice by a system of terror and denunciations, people fling themselves over the precipice from the mere dread of falling.Collection: Fall
By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns; so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.Collection: Revenge
Experience makes us wise.Collection: Wise
Languages happily restrict the mind to what is of its own native growth and fitted for it, as rivers and mountains bond countries; or the empire of learning, as well as states, would become unwieldy and overgrown.Collection: Country
Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.Collection: Temper
What I mean by living to one's self is living in the world, as in it, not of it.Collection: Mean
To die is only to be as we were before we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea.Collection: Regret
His hypothesis goes to this - to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.Collection: Running
There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.Collection: Hypocrisy
Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.Collection: Competition
The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.Collection: Critics
The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.Collection: Death
The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.Collection: Passion
Most of the methods for measuring the lapse of time have, I believe, been the contrivance of monks and religious recluses, who, finding time hang heavy on their hands, were at some pains to see how they got rid of it.Collection: Religious
Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.Collection: Sports
Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not, let your liberality keep pace with their good fortune. Envy no one, and you need envy no one.Collection: Believe
Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.Collection: Inspirational
He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.Collection: Greatness
Principle is a passion for truth.Collection: Passion
He who draws upon his own resources easily comes to an end of his wealth.Collection: Wealth
Nothing precludes sympathy so much as a perfect indifference to itCollection: Sympathy
The way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.Collection: Success
Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.Collection: Greatness
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.Collection: Conversation
The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.Collection: Inspirational