William Hazlitt

The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.

Prejudice is the Child of Ignorance.

If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously; and those who have produced immortal works, have done so without knowing how or why. The greatest power operates unseen.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are the more leisure we have.

The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.

If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.

I like a friend better for having faults that one can talk about.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room.

The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts.

When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.

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.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.

Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
To display the greatest powers, unless they are applied to great purposes, makes nothing for the character of greatness.
William Hazlitt - on the Pleasure of Hating
No man is truly great, who is great only in his life-time. The test of greatness is the page of history.

- William Hazlitt