32 Quotes by Philip Gilbert Hamerton

The one mistake which is committed habitually by people who have the gift of half-genius, is waiting for inspiration.

The opinions of men who think are always growing and changing, like living children.

Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do.

What delights us in the spring is more a sensation than an appearance, more a hope than any visible reality. There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very sounds and odors of the sweet time, that caresses us and consoles us after the rigorous weeks of winter.

Fashion is nothing more than the temporary custom of rich and idle people who make it their principal business to study the external elegance of life.

Conversation is interesting in proportion to the originality of the central ideas which serve as pivots and the fitness of the little facts and observations which are contributed by the talkers.

Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.

I wonder how it is that so cheerful-looking a tree as the willow should ever have become associated with ideas of sadness.

Woe unto him that is never alone, and cannot bear to be alone.