William Hazlitt

The most learned are often the most narrow-minded men.

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.

The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.

To a superior race of beings the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem equally ridiculous.

One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.

Unlimited power is helpless, as arbitrary power is capricious. Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We can attempt nothing great, but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter: we can persevere in nothing …

No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others; and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he.

The truly proud man knows neither superiors nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of: the last he does not concern himself about.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

The public have neither shame or gratitude.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our friends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please — that is as they please or …

The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test; for it is on that on which our success in life depends.

There are names written in her immortal scroll, at which FAME blushes!

The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.

Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope.

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

Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune.

Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.

Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference.