William Hazlitt Quotes

There has never been a man mean and at the same time virtuous.

But virtue too, as well as vice, is clad in flesh and blood.

Virtue!--to be good and just-- Every heart, when sifted well, Is a clot of warmer dust, Mix'd with cunning sparks of hell.

In public life as in private life, a man of the very highest repute will occasionally go wrong..

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

Actually, no one is born honest or corrupt.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

There is hardly that person to be found who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and sense, than honesty and virtue.

We have next to consider the formal definition of virtue.

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

He, who practices right, but in the hope of acquiring great renown, is very near to vice.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways.

Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.

But courage without conduct is the virtue of a robber, or a tyrant.

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.

Morality is truth in full bloom.

Goodness is equally hateful to the wicked, as vice is to the virtuous.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.

I don't care about what brand you are, I'm concerned what type of man you are, what your principles and standards are.

Man is born with uprightness. If one loses it, he will be lucky if he escapes with his life.

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Great men are almost always bad men.

A superior man thinks of what is right. A small man thinks of profit.