William Hazlitt Man Quotations

Man is an individual animal with narrow faculties, but infinite desires, which he is anxious to concentrate in some one object within the grasp of his imagination, and where, if he cannot be all that he wishes himself, he may at least contemplate his own pride, vanity, and passions, displayed in their most extravagant dimensions in a being no bigger and no better than himself.

No young man believes he shall ever die

Right, in a word, is the duty which each man owes to himself; or it is that portion of the general good of which (as being principally interested) he is made the special judge, and which is put under his immediate keeping.

We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves, and have neither thoughts nor feelings to impart to them. Give a man a topic in his head, a throb of pleasure in his heart, and he will be glad to share it with the first person he meets.

A man must make his choice not only between virtue and vice, but between different virtues.

No truly great man ever thought himself so.

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

The truly proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.

The truly proud man knows neither superiors nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of; the last he does not concern himself about.

When a man is dead, they put money in his coffin, erect monuments to his memory, and celebrate the anniversary of his birthday in set speeches. Would they take any notice of him if he were living? No!

Every man depends on the quantity of sense, wit, or good manners he brings into society for the reception he meets with in it.