William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) was an English essayist, critic, and political writer whose prose remains among the most vivid of the Romantic period. His major works include Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, The Spirit of the Age, Table-Talk, The Plain Speaker, and Lectures on the English Poets. Hazlitt matters because he made criticism personal, passionate, and intellectually alive. He wrote brilliantly on theatre, painting, literature, politics, travel, conversation, and the self, often with a candor that cost him socially. A supporter of Napoleon and radical politics, he stood apart from many contemporaries and wrote with combative independence. His essays turn judgment into drama, exposing taste, prejudice, desire, and disappointment. Hazlitt's quotes endure because they combine sharp perception with emotional force, especially on life, liberty, imagination, and human contradiction. His criticism still feels alive because it risks personality in judgment.

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