William Hazlitt - Oxford Reference
Update

Related Content

In this work

Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 06 June 2024

William Hazlitt 1778–1830
English essayist 

  1. Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
    Characteristics (1823) no. 305
  2. 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.
    Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819) ‘On Wit and Humour’
  3. Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
    Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819) ‘On Wit and Humour’
  4. He talked on for ever; and you wished him to talk on for ever.
    of Coleridge
    Lectures on the English Poets (1818) ‘On the Living Poets’
  5. Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
    ‘On Prejudice’ (1830)
  6. By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to despise ourselves.
    ‘On Reading New Books’ in Monthly Magazine 1827
  7. The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
    Political Essays (1819) ‘The Times Newspaper’
  8. There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.
    The Round Table (1817) ‘Observations on Mr Wordsworth's Poem The Excursion’
  9. The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
    The Round Table (1817) ‘On Manner’
  10. A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
    Sketches and Essays (1839) ‘Nicknames’
  11. The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.
    Sketches and Essays (1839) ‘On Knowledge of the World’
  12. Rules and models destroy genius and art.
    Sketches and Essays (1839) ‘On Taste’
  13. No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to himself.
    Sketches and Essays (1839) ‘On Taste’
  14. Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars.
    Table Talk vol. 1 (1821) ‘The Indian Jugglers’
  15. We can scarcely hate any one that we know.
    Table Talk vol. 2 (1822) ‘On Criticism’
  16. If you think you can win, you can. Faith is necessary to victory.
    Table Talk vol. 2 (1822) ‘On Great and Little Things’
  17. Well, I've had a happy life.
    last words; W. C. Hazlitt Memoirs of William Hazlitt (1867)