William Hazlitt foi um escritor inglês, lembrado por seus ensaios humanistas.
No início de sua vida, sente-se fortemente inclinado à prática da pintura, carreira da qual abdica depois da marcante experiência no Museu do Louvre em 1802, época em que o antigo Palácio Real acabara de ser transformado em Museu. Fortemente motivado pela experiência, centrada sobretudo nos "old masters", Hazlitt ensaia sua crítica de arte , cuja versão definitiva é também uma verdadeira teoria da sensibilidade, formulada posteriormente no escrito "On the Elgin marbles", ensaios versando os frisos do Parthenon que o Museu britânico exibe ao público a partir de 1816. As suas investigações estéticas ancoradas em sua crítica de arte tem seu desenvolvimento derradeiro num escrito de 1826, The plain Speaker. Depois disso, o autor viria a dedicar-se integralmente à História de Napoleão e da Revolução Francesa, em que exprime seu profundo entusiasmo pela constituição republicana consequente da revolução política de 1789.
Crítico de arte, defensor dos valores de republicanismo e historiador, Hazlitt é sobretudo um brilhante estilista que transforma o talento não direcionado à produção pictórica em prosa do mais elevado grau de excelência.
Wikipedia
“O preconceito é o filho da ignorância.”
Prejudice is the child of ignorance
Men and manners: sketches and essays - Página 83 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=bKADAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA83, de William Hazlitt - Pub. at the office of The illustrated London library, 1852 - 313 páginas
“Nunca conseguimos fazer nada correctamente enquanto não pararmos de pensar em como o fazer.”
Variante: Nunca conseguimos fazer nada corretamente enquanto não pararmos de pensar em como o fazer.
“A arte de agradar consiste em ter agrado com isso.”
The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
The round table. Northcote's conversations. Characteristics - Página 60, de William Hazlitt, James Northcote - Bell & Daldy, 1871 - 568 páginas
“Antipatias violentas são sempre suspeitas e revelam uma afinidade secreta.”
Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.
Table-talk: or original essays - Vol. 2, Página 377 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=gykJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA377, de William Hazlitt - 1821 - 400 páginas
“Se os governantes quisessem o que está certo, tê-lo-iam obtido há muito tempo.”
William Hazlitt citado em "Citações da Cultura Universal" - Página 233, de Alberto J. G. Villamarín, Editora AGE Ltda, 2002, ISBN 8574970891, 9788574970899
Atribuídas
“Ciência é o desejo de conhecer as causas”
William Hazlitt, filósofo inglês, conforme encontrado em Singh, Simon - Big Bang - Capítulo: "O que é ciência?" - Editora Record - 2006 - pág.: 459
Atribuídas
Variante: Uma paixão forte por qualquer objeto assegurará o sucesso, porque o desejo pelo objetivo mostrará os meios.
“A simplicidade de caráter é o resultado natural da profundez de pensamento.”
Variante: A simplicidade de caráter é o resultado natural de profundo raciocínio.
Variante: Não há animal mais abjecto, estúpido, cobarde, lamentável, egoísta, rancoroso, invejoso, ingrato, que o público. É o maior dos cobardes, porque de si mesmo tem medo.
“O espírito é o sal da conversa, não o seu alimento.”
Variante: O espírito é o sal da conversação e não o alimento.
“Grace in women has more effect than beauty.”
"On Manner"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
“Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.”
No. 305
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Contexto: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Contexto: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
"Common Places," No. 76, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823)
“He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.”
Lectures on the English Poets http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16209/16209.txt (1818), Lecture I, "On Poetry in General"
Contexto: Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.
“There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.”
"On the Tendency of Sects"
The Round Table (1815-1817)
Contexto: There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The extreme stress laid upon difierences of minor importance, to the neglect of more general truths and broader views of things, gives an inverted bias to the understanding; and this bias is continually increased by the eagerness of controversy, and captious hostility to the prevailing system. A party-feeling of this kind once formed will insensibly communicate itself to other topics; and will be too apt to lead its votaries to a contempt for the opinions of others, a jealousy of every difference of sentiment, and a disposition to arrogate all sound principle as well as understanding to themselves, and those who think with them. We can readily conceive how such persons, from fixing too high a value on the practical pledge which they have given of the independence and sincerity of their opinions, come at last to entertain a suspicion of every one else as acting under the shackles of prejudice or the mask of hypocrisy. All those who have not given in their unqualified protest against received doctrines and established authority, are supposed to labour under an acknowledged incapacity to form a rational determination on any subject whatever. Any argument, not having the presumption of singularity in its favour, is immediately set aside as nugatory. There is, however, no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice. For this last implies not only the practical conviction that it is right, but the theoretical assumption that it cannot be wrong. From considering all objections as in this manner "null and void,” the mind becomes so thoroughly satisfied with its own conclusions, as to render any farther examination of them superfluous, and confounds its exclusive pretensions to reason with the absolute possession of it.
“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.”
Fonte: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
No. 257
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Fonte: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.”
No. 401
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Fonte: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.”
"The Sick Chamber," The New Monthly Magazine (August 1830), reprinted in Essays of William Hazlitt, selected and edited by Frank Carr (London, 1889)
Fonte: Essays of William Hazlitt: Selected and Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank Carr
"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
Fonte: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“Love turns, with little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal.”
Fonte: On the Pleasure of Hating
“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
"The Times Newspaper"
Political Essays (1819)
“We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.”
Fonte: Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims
“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.”
"Common Places," No. 1, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
Fonte: Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims
"On Reading New Books" (1825)
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
“Prejudice is the child of ignorance…”
" On Prejudice http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/Prejudice.htm"
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
"On Corporate Bodies"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
No. 34
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
" My First Acquaintance with Poets http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/FirstAcquaintancePoets.htm" (1822)
The Plain Speaker (1826)
“Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference.”
"On Wit and Humour" http://books.google.com/books?id=XPchAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Wit+is+in+fact+the+eloquence+of%22&pg=PA23#v=onepage
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)