William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes (107 Quotes)

He had placed himself at her feet so long that the poor little woman had been accustomed to trample upon him. She didn't wish to marry him, but she wished to keep him. She wished to give him nothing, but that he should give her all. It is a bargain not unfrequently levied in love.

Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world always yields or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and it will succumb.

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.

If success is rare and slow, everybody knows how quick and easy ruin is.

How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy Pendennis. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.

Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for anyone who dies.

. . . 'tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude, or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being.

If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbor.

The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.

It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.

We must pass over a part of Mrs. Rebecca Crawleys biography with that lightness and delicacy which the world demands--the moral world, that has, perhaps, no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.

Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harry - every man of every nation has done that - 'tis the living up to it that is difficult.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

People hate as they love, unreasonably.

If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!

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.

If she did not wish to lead a virtuous life, at least she desired to enjoy a character for virtue . . .

Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

To endure is greater than to dare to tire out hostile fortune to be daunted by no difficultyto keep heart when all have lost it to go through intrigue spotlessto forego even ambition when the end is gained who can say this is not greatness.

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.

It is from the level of calamities, not that of every-day life, that we learn impressive and useful lessons.

'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

If a man has committed wrong in life, I dont know any moralist more anxious to point his errors out to the world than his own relations.

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

Charlotte, having seen his body Borne before her on a shutter, Like a well-conducted person, Went on cutting bread and butter.

Although I enter not, Yet round about the spot Ofttimes I hover And near the sacred gate With longing eyes I wait, Expectant of her.

Oh, Vanity of vanities How wayward the decrees of Fate are How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are.

What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is

When I say that I know women, I mean I know that I dont know them. Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me, as, I have no doubt, she is to herself.

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.

The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.

Them's my sentiments.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

It's not dying for faith that's so hard, it's living up to it.

Christmas is here Winds whistle shrill, Icy and chill. Little care we Little we fear Weather without, Sheltered about The Mahogany Tree.

Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.

Our great thoughts, our great affections, the truths of our life, never leave us. Surely they can not separate from our consciousness, shall follow it whithersoever that shall go, and are of their nature divine and immortal.

We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best being pleased by repeated trials, to make ... pure spirits more pure.

For his part, every beauty of art or nature made him thankful as well as happy, and that the pleasure to be had in listening to fine music, as in looking at the stars in the sky, or at a beautiful landscape or picture, was a benefit for which we might thank Heaven as sincerely as for any other worldly blessing.

Life is the soul's nursery - its training place for the destinies of eternity.

Might I give counsel to any man, I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and in life, that is the most wholesome society learn to admire rightly the great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admire.

I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

Novelty has charms that our mind can hardly withstand.

Fashnable fax and polite annygoats.

What money is better bestowed than that of a schoolboy's tip? How the kindness is recalled by the recipient in after days! It blesses him that gives and him that takes.