William Hazlitt

Quotes

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.
No man is truly great, who is great only in his life-time. The test of greatness is the page of history.
Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.
A King (as such) is not a great man. He has great power, but it is not his own.
To display the greatest powers, unless they are applied to great purposes, makes nothing for the character of greatness.
To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.
A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.
No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.
A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.
...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.
Prejudice is the Child of Ignorance.
He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.
We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.
Those who are fond of settling things to rights have no great objection to seeing them wrong.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are the more leisure we have.
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 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.
The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.
I like a friend better for having faults that one can talk about.
The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.
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.
Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room.
Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.