Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

William Hazlitt

English Writer, Literary and Art Critic, Social Commentator, Philosopher and Author

"To be happy, we must be true to nature, and carry our age along with us."

"To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead."

"To be remembered after we are dead is but a poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living."

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

"To think justly we must understand what others mean: to know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds."

"To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said."

"Time, the most independent of all things."

"Those who have the largest hearts have the soundest understanding: and he is the truest philosopher who can forget himself."

"To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it."

"Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you."

"We dread life's termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope... Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain."

"We often repent the good we have done as well as the ill."

"We would willingly and without remorse, sacrifice not only the present moment, but all the interval (no matter how long) that separates us from any favorite object."

"Whatever interests is interesting."

"Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated."

"We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed."

"We should be inclined to pay more attention to the wisdom of the old, if they showed greater indulgence to the follies of the young."

"What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients."

"Whenever we pretend, on all occasions, a mighty contempt for any thing, it is a pretty clear sign that we feel ourselves very nearly on a level with it."

"Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food."

"Words are the only things that last forever."

"Zeal will do more than knowledge."

"Learning is its own exceeding great reward."

"Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope, and few are reduced so low."

"Wonder at the first sign of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty; but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge."

"Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man."

"Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater."

"The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud."

"Religion either makes men wise and virtuous, or it makes them set up false pretences to both."

"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."

"The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much."

"The Human Race is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for they are the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and what they might have been."

"The least pain in our little finger gives more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings."

"The humblest painter is a true scholar, and the best of scholars – the scholar of nature."

"The great difficulty in philosophy is to come to every question with a mind fresh and unshackled by former theories, though strengthened by exercise and information."

"The two great springs of life, Hope and Fear."

"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves."

"Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others, who feel that the world has done them justice."

"We are not hypocrites in our sleep. The curb is taken off from our passions, and our imagination wanders at will. When awake, we check these rising thoughts, and fancy we have them not. In dreams, when we are off guard, they return securely and unbidden."

"Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration; and the shining points of character are not those we chiefly wish to dwell upon."

"Prejudice is the child of ignorance."