William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.
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To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
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Not only is the world informed of everything about you, but of a great deal more.
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Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
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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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Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
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What, indeed, does not that word "cheerfulness" imply? It means a contented spirit, it means a pure heart, it means a kind and loving disposition; it means humility and charity; it means a generous appreciation of others, and a modest opinion of self.
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What is wanted for the nonce is, that folks should be as agreeable as possible in conversation and demeanor; so that good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in societ.
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it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody
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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.'
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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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To our betters eve can reconcile ourselves, if you please--respecting them sincerely, laughing at their jokes, making allowance for their stupidities, meekly suffering their insolence; but we can't pardon our equals going beyond us.
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There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.
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Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
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The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.
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The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
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Oh, my young friends, how delightful is the beginning of a love – business, and how undignified, sometimes, the end!
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Humor is the mistress of tears.
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The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?
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The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.
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If success is rare and slow, everybody knows how quick and easy ruin is.
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Perhaps all early love affairs ought to be strangled or drowned, like so many blind kittens.
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Happy! Who is happy? Was there not a serpent in Paradise itself? And if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand, would she have listened to the tempter?
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The great moments of life are but moments like the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the eyes; a mere pressure of the hand, may decide it; or of the lip,s though they cannot speak.