Everyone knows the harm the bad do, but who knows the mischief done by the good
More Quotes from William M. Thackeray:
A Tragic Story --- William M. Thackeray There lived a sage in days of yore, And he a handsome pigtail wore But wondered much, and sorrowed more, Because it hung behind him. He mused upon this curious case, And swore he'd change the pigtail's place, And have it hanging at his face, Not dangling there behind him. Says he, Ah, the mystery I've found-- I'll turn me round, --he turned him round But still it hung behind him. Then round and round, and out and in, All day the puzzled sage did spin In vain--it mattered not a pin-- The pigtail hung behind him. And right, and left, and round about, And up, and down, and in, and out He turned but still the pigtail stout Hung steadily behind him. And though his efforts never slack, And though he twist, and twirl, and tack, Alas Still faithful to his back, The pigtail hangs behind him.William M. Thackeray
So he sighed and pined and ogled,And his passion boiled and bubbled,Till he blew his silly brains out,And no more was by it troubled.
William M. Thackeray
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 M. Thackeray
If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men's failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal's natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle.
William M. Thackeray
Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
William M. Thackeray
She looks so haughty that I should have thought her a princess at the very least, with a pedigree reaching as far back as the Deluge. But this lady was no better born than many other ladies who give themselves airs and all sensible people laughed at her absurd pretensions.
William M. Thackeray
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