William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
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In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.
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Learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what the great men admired; they admired great things; narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly.
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A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
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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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Kindness is very indigestible. It disagrees with very proud stomachs.
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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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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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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 thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.
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To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
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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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That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.
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Bad husbands will make bad wives.
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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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The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
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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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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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Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.
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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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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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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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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.