The Round Table Quotes

“Life is the art of being well-deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.”
― William Hazlitt, The Round Table: 1817

“The most trifling matters may sometimes be not only the commencement, but the causes, of the gravest discussions. The fall of an apple from a tree suggested the doctrine of gravitation; and the same apple, for aught we know, served up in a dumpling, may have assisted the philosopher in his notions of heat ; for who has not witnessed similar causes and effects at a dinner table ? I confess, a piece of mutton has supplied me with arguments, as well as chops, for a week ; I have seen a hare or a cod’s-head giving hints to a friend for his next Essay; and have known the most solemn reflections rise, with a pair of claws, out of a pigeon-pie.”
― Leigh Hunt, The Round Table: A Collection of Essays on Literature, Men and Manners

“We have avoided the trouble of adding assumed characters to our real ones; and shall talk, just as we think, walk, and take dinner, in our own proper persons. It is true, the want of old age, or of a few patriarchal eccentricities to exercise people's patronage on, and induce their self-love to bear with us, may be a deficiency in our pretensions with some; but we must plainly confess, with whatever mortification, that we are still at a flourishing time of life; and that the trouble and experience, which have passed over our heads, have left our teeth, hair, and eyes, pretty nearly as good as they found them.”
― Leigh Hunt, The Round Table: A Collection of Essays on Literature, Men and Manners