William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?
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That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.
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As nature made every man with a nose and eyes of his own, she gave him a character of his own, too; and yet we, O foolish race! must try our very best to ape some one or two of our neighbors, whose ideas fit us no more than their breeches!
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Ho, pretty page, with the dimpled chin That never has known the barber's shear, All your wish is woman to win, This is the way that boys begin. Wait till you come to Forty Year.
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Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.
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A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
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The death of a child occasions a passion of grief and frantic tears, such as your end, brother reader, will never inspire.
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Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.
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In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.
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Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?
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Society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society, and conform to its harmless orders.
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If there is no love more in yonder heart, it is but a corpse unburied.
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One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent.
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If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.
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Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
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Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody's fine feelings may be offended.
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Charming Alnaschar visions! it is the happy privilege of youth to construct you.
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The great quality of Dulness is to be unalterably contented with itself.
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We pass by common objects or persons without noticing them; but the keen eye detects and notes types everywhere and among all classes.
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Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.
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As an occupation in declining years, I declare I think saving is useful, amusing and not unbecoming. It must be a perpetual amusement. It is a game that can be played by day, by night, at home and abroad, and at which you must win in the long run. . . . What an interest it imparts to life!.
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Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.
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Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard... 'Tis the living up to it that's difficult.
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Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, 'To-morrow, success or failure won't matter much; and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil.'