William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
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So they pass away: friends, kindred, the dearest-loved, grown people, aged, infants. As we go on the down-hill journey, the mile-stones are grave-stones, and on each more and more names are written; unless haply you live beyond man's common age, when friends have dropped off, and, tottering, and feeble, and unpitied, you reach the terminus alone.
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And in those varieties of pain of which we spoke anon, what a part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly plant was introduced among us! What myriads of women have cried over it, to be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received refreshment from out of it! Nature meant very gently by women when she made that teaplant; and with a little thought what a series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the teapot and cup!
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When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.
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Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
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Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?
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I have long gone about with a conviction on my mind that I had a work to do-a Work, if you like, with a great W; a Purpose to fulfil; ... a Great Social Evil to Discover and to Remedy.
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A man is seldom more manly than when he is what you call unmanned,--the source of his emotion is championship, pity, and courage; the instinctive desire to cherish those who are innocent and unhappy, and defend those who are tender and weak.
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Is beauty beautiful, or is it only our eyes that make it so?
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Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men's faces that is honored wherever presented. You cannot help trusting such men. Their very presence gives confidence. There is promise to pay in their faces which gives confidence and you prefer it to another man's endorsement. Character is credit.
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...the greatest tyrants over women are women.
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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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If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
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Almost all women will give a sympathizing hearing to men who are in love. Be they ever so old, they grow young again with that conversation, and renew their own early times.
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Out of the fictitious book I get the expression of the life, of the times, of the manners, of the merriment, of the dress, the pleasure, the laughter, the ridicules of society. The old times live again. Can the heaviest historian do more for me?
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A gentleman, is a rarer thing than some of us think for. Which of us can point out many such in his circle--men whose aims are generous, whose truth is constant and elevated; who can look the world honestly in the face, with an equal manly sympathy for the great and the small? We all know a hundred whose coats are well made, and a score who have excellent manners; but of gentlemen how many? Let us take a little scrap of paper, and each make out his list.
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Who feels injustice, who shrinks before a slight, who has a sense of wrong so acute, and so glowing a gratitude for kindness, as a generous boy?
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An intelligent wife can make her home, in spite of exigencies, pretty much what she pleases.
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The Pall Mall Gazette is written by gentlemen for gentlemen.
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Not only is the world informed of everything about you, but of a great deal more.
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Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.
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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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The affection of young ladies is of as rapid growth as Jack's beanstalk, and reaches up to the sky in a night.
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Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
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Time passes, Time the consoler, Time the anodyne.