William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.

Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.

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.

Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.

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 greatest tyrants over women are women.

Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.

You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your wealth.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

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.

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

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

It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.

Is beauty beautiful, or is it only our eyes that make it so?

The best of women are hypocrites.

We pass by common objects or persons without noticing them; but the keen eye detects and notes types everywhere and among all classes.

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

In effective womanly beauty form is more than face, and manner more than either.

Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.

To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.

Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.

Choose a good disagreeable friend, if you be wise--a surly, steady, economical, rigid fellow.

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

Benevolence and feeling ennoble the most trifling actions.

Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

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

It is comparatively easy to leave a mistress, but very hard to be left by one.

What stories are new? All types of all characters march through all fables.

Alas! we are the sport of destiny.

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

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

All is vanity, look you; and so the preacher is vanity too.

Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard... 'Tis the living up to it that's difficult.

Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

I wonder is it because men are cowards in heart that they admire bravery so much, and place military valor so far beyond every other quality for reward and worship.

Kindness is very indigestible. It disagrees with very proud stomachs.

Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?

All is vanity, nothing is fair.

All amusements to which virtuous women are not admitted, are, rely upon it, deleterious in their nature.

He that has ears to hear, let him stuff them with cotton.

It's a great comfort to some people to groan over their imaginary ills.

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.

Learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what the great men admired; they admired great things; narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly.

I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and social.

Who was the blundering idiot who said 'fine words butter no parsnips'? Half the parsnips of society are served and rendered palatable with no other sauce.

I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses.

Titles are abolished; and the American Republic swarms with men claiming and bearing them.

If you will fling yourself under the wheels, Juggernaut will go over you; depend upon it.

Charming Alnaschar visions! it is the happy privilege of youth to construct you.

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.