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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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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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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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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It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.
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Love seems to survive life, and to reach beyond it. I think we take it with us past the grave. Do we not still give it to those who have left us? May we not hope that they feel it for us, and that we shall leave it here in one or two fond bosoms, when we also are gone?
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There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
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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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He who meanly admires a mean thing is a snob--perhaps that is a safe definition of the character.
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To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
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If success is rare and slow, everybody knows how quick and easy ruin is.
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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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Young ladies may have been crossed in love, and have had their sufferings, their frantic moments of grief and tears, their wakeful nights, and so forth; but it is only in very sentimental novels that people occupy themselves perpetually with that passion, and I believe what are called broken hearts are a very rare article indeed.
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That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.
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If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.
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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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Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?
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A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
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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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We love being in love, that's the truth on't. If we had not met Joan, we should have met Kate, and adored her. We know our mistresses are no better than many other women, nor no prettier, nor no wiser, nor no wittier. 'Tis not for these reasons we love a woman, or for any special quality or charm I know of; we might as well demand that a lady should be the tallest woman in the world, like the Shropshire giantess, as that she should be a paragon in any other character, before we began to love her.
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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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If there is no love more in yonder heart, it is but a corpse unburied.
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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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Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.