William Hazlitt

It is well there is no one without fault for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to a different species.

We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them and a lucky hit either in business or reputation improves even their personal appearance in our eyes.

Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies.

Faith is necessary to victory.

Though familiarity may not breed contempt it takes off the edge of admiration.

Zeal will do more than knowledge.

The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way ... an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.

A strong passion for any object will ensure success for the desire of the end will point out the means.

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: The one thinks everything right that is French the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.

Reason with most people means their own opinions.

The soul of dispatch is decision.

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

Wit is the salt of conversation not the food.

Silence is one great art of conversation.

We may be willing to tell a story twice never to hear it more than once.

Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty hesitation or incongruity.

We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have moldered away gradually long before. Faculty after faculty interest after interest attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living.

Prosperity is a great teacher adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind privation trains and strengthens it.