William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry whom she likes. Only let us be thankful that the darlings are like the beasts of the field, and don't know their own power. They would overcome us entirely if they did.
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Pray, dear madam, another glass; it is Christmas time, it will do you no harm.
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A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.
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It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now
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Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.
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Kindness is very indigestible. It disagrees with very proud stomachs.
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Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish. Alas, the heart hardens as the blood ceases to run. The cold snow strikes down from the head, and checks the glow of feeling. Who wants to survive into old age after abdicating all his faculties one by one, and be sans teeth, sans eyes, sans memory, sans hope, sans sympathy?
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A pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice to subdue a man; to enslave him, and enflame him; to make him even forget; they dazzle him so that the past becomes straightway dim to him; and he so prizes them that he would give all his life to possess 'em.
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I never was much of an oyster eater, nor can I relish them 'in naturalibus' as some do, but require a quantity of sauces, lemons, cayenne peppers, bread and butter, and so forth, to render them palatable.
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You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your wealth.
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When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.
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We can't all be lions in this world. There must be some lambs, harmless, kindly, gregarious creatures for eating and shearing.
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The ladies--Heaven bless them!--are, as a general rule, coquettes from babyhood upwards.
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Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
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Which of us that is thirty years old has not had its Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth--the careless sport, the pleasure and the passion, the darling joy.
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An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.
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How grateful are we--how touched a frank and generous heart is for a kind word extended to us in our pain! The pressure of a tender hand nerves a man for an operation, and cheers him for the dreadful interview with the surgeon.
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It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.
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What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?
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Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
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Life without laughing is a dreary blank.
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Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
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People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
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Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.