809 Quotes by William Hazlitt

There are two classes of people that I have observed who are not so distinct as might be imagined -- those who cannot keep their own money in their hands, and those who cannot keep their hands from other people's.

We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.

A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.

As a general rule, those who are dissatisfied with themselves will seek to go out of themselves into an ideal world. Persons in strong health and spirits, who take plenty of air and exercise, who are "in favor with, their stars," and have a thorough relish of the good things of this life, seldom devote themselves in despair to religion or the muses. Sedentary, nervous, hypochondriacal people, on the contrary, are forced, for want of an appetite for the real and substantial, to look out for a more airy food and speculative comforts.

The generality of mankind are contented to be estimated by what they possess instead of what they are.

Man is an individual animal with narrow faculties, but infinite desires, which he is anxious to concentrate in some one object within the grasp of his imagination, and where, if he cannot be all that he wishes himself, he may at least contemplate his own pride, vanity, and passions, displayed in their most extravagant dimensions in a being no bigger and no better than himself.

It is better to drink of deep grief than to taste shallow pleasures.

The fields his study, nature was his book.

Lest he should wander irretrievably from the right path, he stands still.