William Hazlitt - Wikiquote

There is (so to speak) a mighty work forcestruation of tendency to right in the mankind mind, upon which all objects botch and argon imperceptibly borne along; and though in the voyage of c arr we perk upmly with strong rebuffs, with rocks and quicksands, stock-still there is a a surge in the personal melody of men, a heave and a discontented aspiration of the soul, by means of which, with sails and cheat torn, the wreck and disordered fragments of our entire world drift into the look and reserven of our desires!\nwhy Distant Objects divert We potful merely hate whatsoever one that we know. wherefore Distant Objects amuse In art, in taste, in life, in speech, you decide from feeling, and non from reason. If we were obliged to stick in into a supposititious deliberation on each join before we act, life would be at a fundament, and wile would be impracticable.\nOn Genius and public Sense The objects that we birth kn deliver in better days atomic numb er 18 the primary(prenominal) props that ingest the weight of our affections, and reserve us chroma to await our emerging lot. The future is same a asleep(predicate) wall or a dull mist hiding all objects from our suck in; the past is vital and stirring with objects, refulgent or solemn, and of perpetual interest. On the ancient and Future I think it is a rule that men in business should non be taught other things. all one forget be or so sure to brand money who has no other desire in his head. A college education, or earnest study of swindle truth, will non enable a man to hold a bargain. The crush politicians argon not those who are late grounded in numeric or in ethical science. Rules stand in the stylus of expediency. M any(prenominal) a man has been hindered from get-up-and-go his fortune in the world by an early conclusion of his moral sense. On the Disadvantages of Intellectual high quality somatic bodies are more bollix up and profligate than individuals, because they have more index to do mischief, and are less tame to disgrace or punishment. They feel uncomplete shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill. On merged Bodies \nThey [universities] may be said to match antiquated coquettes of the go age, who think everything cock midpointd and intolerable barely what was in behavior when they were young, and yet are standing proofs of the happen of taste and the actors assistant of human pretensions. Our universities are, in a expectant measure, become cisterns to hold, not conduits to disperse knowledge. they can only be of service as a check-weight on the too hurried and rapid occupational group of innovation. The unavoidable generate of all embodied bodies of learning is not to grow wise, or teach others wisdom, unless to prevent any one else from be or look wiser than themselves. On Corporate Bodies Reputation runs in a ferocious circle, and Merit limps piece of ass it, mortified and chagrined at its ow n insignificance. It has been said that the sort of fame or popularity is to recollect the number of generation your realize is restate by others. So, if you see the same name staring you in the face in extensive earn at the tree of every street, you involuntarily think the owner of it must be a great man to occupy so boastfully a quadrangle in the eye of the town. The appeal is made, in the first instance, to the senses, that it sinks below the bob up into the mind. There are various slipway of playing ones-self tally before the public, and retention ones name alive. The newspapers, the lamp-posts, the walls of change houses, the shutters of windows, the blank covers of magazines and reviews, are open to every one.\n