William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

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

What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?

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

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.

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

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

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.

Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.

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?

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

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.

Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.

Those we love can but walk down to the pier with us - the voyage we must make alone.

The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now

Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.

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.

Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, - a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them, - the truffles were coming.

Malice is of the boomerang character, and is apt to turn upon the projector.

A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.

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

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

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.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.

That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish.

Bad husbands will make bad wives.

An immense percentage of snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life.

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.

He who meanly admires a mean thing is a snob--perhaps that is a safe definition of the character.

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

A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.

Successful people aren't born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don't like to do. The successful people don't always like these things themselves; they just get on and do them.

Every man ought to be in love a few times in his life, and to have a smart attack of the fever. You are better for it when it is over: the better for your misfortune, if you endure it with a manly heart; how much the better for success, if you win it and a good wife into the bargain!

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

No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.

You can't order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.

To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight of all.

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

Though small was your allowance, You saved a little store: And those who save a little, Shall get a plenty more.

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?

There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.

Women are jealous of cigars... they regard them as a strong rival.

It is a friendly heart that has plenty of friends.

To forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?

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

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

Vanity is often the unseen spur.

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and planted it, so deal with your compliments through life. An acorn costs nothing, but it may spread into a prodigious timber.