William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

William Hazlitt was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Despite his high standing among historians of literature and art, his work is currently little read and mostly out of print.

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.

Values
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.

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

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

Faith
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.