William Makepeace Thackeray famous quotes
Last updated: Jul 22, 2024
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When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
A good laugh is sunshine in the house.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Bravery never goes out of fashion.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
...the greatest tyrants over women are women.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
All is vanity, nothing is fair.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
I would rather make my name than inherit it.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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People hate as they love, unreasonably.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Though small was your allowance, You saved a little store: And those who save a little, Shall get a plenty more.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Sir, Respect Your Dinner: idolize it, enjoy it properly. You will be many hours in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life happier if you do.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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There is a certain sort of man whose doom in the world is disappointment, who excels in it, and whose luckless triumphs in his meek career of life, I have often thought, must be regarded by the kind eyes above with as much favor as the splendid successes and achievements of coarser and more prosperous men.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Happiest time of youth and life, when love is first spoken and returned; when the dearest eyes are daily shining welcome, and the fondest lips never tire of whispering their sweet secrets; when the parting look that accompanies "Good night!" gives delightful warning of tomorrow.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Charming Alnaschar visions! it is the happy privilege of youth to construct you.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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We who have lived before railways were made belong to another world. It was only yesterday, but what a gulf between now and then! Then was the old world. Stage-coaches, more or less swift, riding-horses, pack-horses, highwaymen, knights in armor, Norman invaders, Roman legions, Druids, Ancient Britons painted blue, and so forth -- all these belong to the old period. But your railroad starts the new era, and we of a certain age belong to the new time and the old one. We who lived before railways, and survive out of the ancient world, are like Father Noah and his family out of the Ark.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Oh, my young friends, how delightful is the beginning of a love-business, and how undignified, sometimes, the end!
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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If there is no love more in yonder heart, it is but a corpse unburied.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
The death of a child occasions a passion of grief and frantic tears, such as your end, brother reader, will never inspire.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Humor is the mistress of tears.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
It's a great comfort to some people to groan over their imaginary ills.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Not only is the world informed of everything about you, but of a great deal more.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Vanity is often the unseen spur.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
There is no man that can teach us to be gentlemen better than Joseph Addison.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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If you had told Sycorax that her son Caliban was as handsome as Apollo, she would have been pleased, witch as she was.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
If fathers are sometimes sulky at the appearance of the destined son-in-law, is it not a fact that mothers become sentimental and, as it were, love their own loves over again.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
I want a sofa, as I want a friend, upon which I can repose familiarly. If you can't have intimate terms and freedom with one and the other, they are of no good.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Only to two or three persons in all the world are the reminiscences of a man's early youth interesting: to the parent who nursed him; to the fond wife or child mayhap afterwards who loves him; to himself always and supremely--whatever may be his actual prosperity or ill fortune, his present age, illness, difficulties, renown, or disappointments--the dawn of his life still shines brightly for him, the early griefs and delights and attachments remain with him ever faithful and dear.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Women like not only to conquer, but to be conquered.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
If love lives through all life; and survives through all sorrow; and remains steadfast with us through all changes; and in all darkness of spirit burns brightly; and, if we die, deplores us for ever, and loves still equally; and exists with the very last gasp and throb of the faithful bosom--whence it passes with the pure soul, beyond death; surely it shall be immortal!
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
How do men feel whose whole lives (and many men's lives are) are lies, schemes, and subterfuges? What sort of company do they keep when they are alone? Daily in life I watch men whose every smile is an artifice, and every wink is an hypocrisy. Doth such a fellow where a mask in his own privacy, and to his own conscience?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Ah me! we wound where we never intended to strike; we create anger where we never meant harm; and these thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. - William Makepeace Thackeray
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody's fine feelings may be offended.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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For my part, I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses,--the very easiest to be deadened when wakened, and in some never wakened at all.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
He that has ears to hear, let him stuff them with cotton.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Alas! we are the sport of destiny.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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The best of women are hypocrites.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
It is from the level of calamities, not that of every-day life, that we learn impressive and useful lessons.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your wealth.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Sure, love vincit omnia; is immeasurably above all ambition, more precious than wealth, more noble than name. He knows not life who knows not that: he hath not felt the highest faculty of the soul who hath not enjoyed it.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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When [men] see a pretty woman, and feel the delicious madness of love coming over them, they always stop to calculate her temper, her money, their own money, or suitableness for the married life.... Ha, ha, ha! Let us fool in this way no more. I have been in love forty-three times with all ranks and conditions of women, and would have married every time if they would have let me. How many wives had King Solomon, the wisest of men? And is not that story a warning to us that Love is master of the wisest? It is only fools who defy him.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
The world is full of love and pity, I say. Had there been less suffering, there would have been less kindness.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
The unambitious sluggard pretends that the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-spirited coward.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Everybody in Vanity Fair must have remarked how well those live who are comfortably and thoroughly in debt; how they deny themselves nothing; how jolly and easy they are in their minds.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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The Pall Mall Gazette is written by gentlemen for gentlemen.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
We should pay as much reverence to youth as we should to age; there are points in which you young folks are altogether our superiors: and I can't help constantly crying out to persons of my own years, when busied about their young people--leave them alone; don't be always meddling with their affairs, which they can manage for themselves; don't be always insisting upon managing their boats, and putting your oars in the water with theirs.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry whom she likes. Only let us be thankful that the darlings are like the beasts of the field, and don't know their own power. They would overcome us entirely if they did.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Who does not believe his first passion eternal?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish. Alas, the heart hardens as the blood ceases to run. The cold snow strikes down from the head, and checks the glow of feeling. Who wants to survive into old age after abdicating all his faculties one by one, and be sans teeth, sans eyes, sans memory, sans hope, sans sympathy?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
You read the past in some old faces.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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To describe love-making is immoral and immodest; you know it is. To describe it as it really is, or would appear to you and me as lookers-on, would be to describe the most dreary farce, to chronicle the most tautological twaddle. To take note of sighs, hand-squeezes, looks at the moon, and so forth--does this business become our dignity as historians? Come away from those foolish young people--they don't want us; and dreary as their farce is, and tautological as their twaddle, you may be sure it amuses them, and that they are happy enough without us.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
All amusements to which virtuous women are not admitted, are, rely upon it, deleterious in their nature.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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!.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Life without laughing is a dreary blank.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Which of us that is thirty years old has not had its Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth--the careless sport, the pleasure and the passion, the darling joy.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
He who meanly admires a mean thing is a snob--perhaps that is a safe definition of the character.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
An immense percentage of snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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Titles are abolished; and the American Republic swarms with men claiming and bearing them.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Ah! gracious Heaven gives us eyes to see our own wrong, however dim age may make them; and knees not too stiff to kneel, in spite of years, cramp, and rheumatism.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Our measure of rewards and punishments is most partial and incomplete, absurdly inadequate, utterly worldly; and we wish to continue it into the next world. Into that next and awful world we strive to pursue men, and send after them our impotent paltry verdicts of condemnation or acquittal. We set up our paltry little rod to measure heaven immeasurable.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
Almost all women have hearts full of pity.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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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.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
What man's life is not overtaken by one or more of those tornadoes that send us out of the course, and fling us on rocks to shelter as best we may?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
True love is better than glory.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
If fun is good, truth is still better, and love best of all.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray -
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