William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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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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Benevolence and feeling ennoble the most trifling actions.
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People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
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There is no good in living in a society where you are merely the equal of everybody else. The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.
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Bravery never goes out of fashion.
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A crow, who had flown away with a cheese from a dairy window, sate perched on a tree looking down at a great big frog in a pool underneath him.
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To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted my no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forgo even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?
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Ah me! we wound where we never intended to strike; we create anger where we never meant harm; and these thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. - William Makepeace Thackeray
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I wonder is it because men are cowards in heart that they admire bravery so much, and place military valor so far beyond every other quality for reward and worship.
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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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Pray, dear madam, another glass; it is Christmas time, it will do you no harm.
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Those we love can but walk down to the pier with us - the voyage we must make alone.
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Those who are gone, you have. Those who departed loving you, love you still; and you love them always. They are not really gone, those dear hearts and true; they are only gone into the next room; and you will presently get up and follow them, and yonder door will close upon you, and you will be no more seen.
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How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy! Pendennis. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.
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He was always thinking of his brother's soul, or of the souls of those who differed with him in opinion: it is a sort of comfort which many of the serious give themselves.
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It is from the level of calamities, not that of every-day life, that we learn impressive and useful lessons.
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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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Next to eating good dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind, must like, I think, to read about them.
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Malice is of the boomerang character, and is apt to turn upon the projector.
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Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
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It's a great comfort to some people to groan over their imaginary ills.
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You can't order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.
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Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.
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He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob.