William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
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A person can't help their birth.
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In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.
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If there is no love more in yonder heart, it is but a corpse unburied.
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Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?
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To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
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That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.
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Forgotten tones of love recur to us, and kind glances shine out of the past – oh so bright and clear! – oh so longed after! – because they are out of reach; as holiday music from within a prison wall – or sunshine seen through the bars; more prized because unattainable – more bright because of the contrast of present darkness and solitude, whence there is no escape.
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Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.
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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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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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Tis hard with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have a life enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most, some forty years lease
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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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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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Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.
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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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It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.
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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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Alas! we are the sport of destiny.
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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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Bad husbands will make bad wives.
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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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It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there.