William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

let me whisper my belief, entre nous, that of those eminent philosophers who cry out against parsons...

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to w...

It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad...

A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her...

I hope the artist who illustrates this work will take care to do justice to his portrait. Mr. Clive ...

Of all the vices which degrade the human character, Selfishness is the most odious and contemptible....

Here is a minute. It may be my love is dead, but here is a minute to kneel over the grave and pray b...

Indeed, for my own part, though I have been repeatedly told by persons for whom I have the greatest ...

She had not character enough to take to drinking, and moaned about, slip-shod and in curl-papers, al...

In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.

Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

When one fib becomes due as it were, you must forge another to take up the old acceptance; and so th...

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

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

The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice c...

A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry WHOM SHE LIKES.

Who has not remarked the readiness with which the closest of friends and honestest of men suspect an...

In a word, in adversity she was the best of comforters, in good fortune the most troublesome of frie...

Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves ...

It is those who injure women who get the most kindness from them.

The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; b...

Here’s a 165-year old but still fitting comment on public officials who are so sure they’re right th...

Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

... I regularly frequent St. George';s, Hanover Square, during the genteel marriage season; and thou...

he began to feel that she was very lonely indeed. “If he’d been here,” she said, “those cowards woul...

Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.

If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the bu...

Vanity Fair--Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read--who had the...

Cheerfulness means a contented spirit, a pure heart, a kind and loving disposition; it means humilit...

A woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a pla...

Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world always yields or if it beats you sometimes dare i...

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.

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

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

It may be whispered to those uninitiated people who are anxious to know the habits and make the acqu...

Sorrows of Werther William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) WERTHER had a love for Charlotte Such as w...

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.

Heaven help us! The girls have only to turn the tables,and say of one of their own sex,'She is as va...

There's a great power of imagination about these little creatures, and a creative fancy and belief t...

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it...

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.

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

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

Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these the great qualities...

Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.

When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

It is from the level of calamities ... that we learn impressive and useful lessons.

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

Mr Moss's courtyard is railed in like a cage, lest the gentlemen who are boarding with him should ta...

think of the condition of Europe for twenty years before, where people were fighting, not by thousan...

When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.

His Scotch bear-leader, Mr Boswell, was a butt of the first quality.

Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. D...

Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.

Mark to yourself the gradual way in which you have been prepared for, and are now led by an irresist...

I have long gone about with a conviction on my mind that I had a work to do—a Work, if you like, wit...

People hate as they love, unreasonably.

To part with money is a sacrifice beyond almost all men endowed with a sense of order. There is scar...