Frases de William Hazlitt

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“Todos nós somos, mais ou menos, escravos da opinião pública.”

“Uma paixão forte será bem-sucedida, pois o desejo do objetivo indicará os meios de alcançá-la.”

“Nunca conseguimos fazer nada correctamente enquanto não pararmos de pensar em como o fazer.”

“A arte de agradar consiste em ter agrado com isso.”

“Antipatias violentas são sempre suspeitas e revelam uma afinidade secreta.”

“Assim como se diz que a hipocrisia é o maior elogio da virtude, a arte de mentir é o mais forte reconhecimento da força da verdade.”

“A arte de viver é saber como se divertir pouco e resistir muito.”

“Ciência é o desejo de conhecer as causas”

“Uma paixão forte por qualquer objecto assegurará o sucesso, porque o desejo pelo objectivo mostrará os meios.”

“Pensar mal da humanidade sem lhe desejar mal talvez seja a forma mais elevada de sabedoria e de virtude.”

“Assim como o estômago rejeita certos alimentos, o espírito se revolta contra certas opiniões.”

“Às vezes ofendemos mais com o nosso silêncio do que com a nossa impertinência.”

“A simplicidade de caráter é o resultado natural da profundez de pensamento.”

“Não há animal mais degradante, estúpido, covarde, lamentável, egoísta, rancoroso, invejoso, ingrato, que o público. É o maior dos covardes, porque de si mesmo tem medo.”

“O espírito é o sal da conversa, não o seu alimento.”

“Como a nossa confiança, assim é a nossa capacidade.”

“Nenhum jovem acredita que um dia morrerá.”

“A multidão, que exige ser conduzida, continua a odiar os guias.”

“A vaidade não se refere à opinião que alguém tem de si mesmo, mas daquela que ele deseja que os outros tenham dele.”

“Quase toda a seita do cristianismo representa uma perversão da sua essência, com a finalidade de adaptá-lo aos preconceitos do mundo.”

“Aqueles para quem a roupa é a parte mais importante da pessoa acabam, geralmente, por valer tanto quanto a sua roupa.”

“As pessoas mais silenciosas geralmente são aquelas que pensam o melhor de si mesmas.”

“A moda é o refinamento que corre à frente da vulgaridade e teme ser ultrapassado.”

“A melhor parte da nossa vida é passada a aguardar o que vem.”

“É impossível odiar alguém que conhecemos.”

“Só ficamos satisfeitos em ter razão se conseguimos provar que os outros estão totalmente errados.”

“É melhor desejar que gozar, amar que ser amado.”

“Uma alcunha é a pedra mais pesada que o diabo pode atirar em alguém.”

“A ira pode subsistir com qualquer tipo de alimento.”

“A calúnia não exige provas.”

“Onde quer que nos sintamos em casa, estaremos à vontade.”

“É melhor não saber ler e escrever do que não saber fazer nenhuma outra coisa.”

“A liberdade é a única riqueza, porque do resto somos ao mesmo tempo amos e escravos.”

“Nós nunca fazemos nada bem até deixarmos de pensar sobre a maneira de o fazer.”

“Aqueles que merecem um monumento não precisam dele.”

“O homem é um animal que finge - e nunca é tão autêntico como quando interpreta um papel.”

“Good temper is one of the great preservers of the features.”

“Again, there is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have also their altars and their religion.”

“There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.”

“We grow tired of every thing but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.”

“A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them.”

“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness, than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.”

“The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favour.”

“Zeal will do more than knowledge.”

“There is (so to speak) "a mighty stream of tendency" to good in the human mind, upon which all objects float and are imperceptibly borne along; and though in the voyage of life we meet with strong rebuffs, with rocks and quicksands, yet there is a "a tide in the affairs of men," a heaving and a restless aspiration of the soul, by means of which, "with sails and tackle torn," the wreck and scattered fragments of our entire being drift into the port and haven of our desires!”

“The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.”

“Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner — and then to thinking! … I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places, mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence.”

“Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for — they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?”

“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 great, but from a pride in overcoming them.”

“The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.”

“Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room; nor know how to conduct myself in any circumstances, nor what to feel in any relation of life.”

“Our first of poets was one of our first of men. He was an eminent instance to prove that a poet is not another name for the slave of power and fashion … who merely aspire to make up the pageant and show of the day. There are persons in common life who … can so little bear to be left for any length of time out of the grand carnival and masquerade of pride and folly, that they will gain admittance to it at the expense of their characters … Milton was not one of these. He had lofty contemplative principle, and consciousness of inward power and worth, [not] to be tempted by such idle baits.”

“The last sort I shall mention are verbal critics — mere word-catchers, fellows that pick out a word in a sentence and a sentence in a volume, and tell you it is wrong. The title of Ultra-Crepidarian critics has been given to a variety of this species.”

“Indeed some degree of affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body; we must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.”

“To be remembered after we are dead, is but a poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.”

“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.”

“The great requisite … for the prosperous management of ordinary business is the want of imagination.”

“I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time. When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country.”

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

“There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals.”

“Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.”

“The objects that we have known in better days are the main props that sustain the weight of our affections, and give us strength to await our future lot. The future is like a dead wall or a thick mist hiding all objects from our view; the past is alive and stirring with objects, bright or solemn, and of unfading interest.”

“To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.”

“Of the two classes of people, I hardly know which is to be regarded with most distaste, the vulgar aping the genteel, or the genteel constantly sneering at and endeavouring to distinguish themselves from the vulgar. … True worth does not exult in the faults and deficiencies of others; as true refinement turns away from grossness and deformity, instead of being tempted to indulge in an unmanly triumph over it. … Real power, real excellence, does not seek for a foil in inferiority; nor fear contamination from coming in contact with that which is coarse and homely.”

“Scholars, like princes, may learn something by being incognito. Yet we see those who cannot go into a bookseller's shop, or bear to be five minutes in a stage-coach, without letting you know who they are. They carry their reputation about with them as the snail does its shell, and sit under its canopy, like the lady in the lobster. I cannot understand this at all. What is the use of a man's always revolving round his own little circle? He must, one should think, be tired of it himself, as well as tire other people.”