William Hazlitt Quotes

The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.

The world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors.

The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

Shall I faint, now that I have poured out the spirit of my mind to the world, and treated many subjects with truth, with freedom, with power, because I have been followed with one cry of abuse ever since for not being a Government tool?

I do not care a fig for any woman that knows even what an author means.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own."

[The Sick Chamber (The New Monthly Magazine , August 1830)]

the old maxim... "there are three things necessary to success in life-Impudence! Impudence! Impudence!

He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.

The present is an age of talkers, and not 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 doat on past achievements.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
(1778 - 1830)