809 Quotes by William Hazlitt

The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.

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.

To think ill of mankind, and not to wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.

It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.

The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.

The power rests with the multitude, but let them beware how the exercise of it turns against their own rights! It is not the idol but the worshippers that are to be dreaded, and who, by degrading one of their fellows, render themselves liable to be branded with the same indignities.

Good temper is an estate for life.

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.