William Hazlitt

Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.

The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.

A wise traveler never despises his own country.

It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.

We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts.

An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.

The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.

If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

Learning is its own exceeding great reward.

Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.