Quotes from William Makepeace Thackeray

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.

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

He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob.

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

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

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

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

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

Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.

'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's difficult.

How to Live Well on Nothing a Year.

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

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

Women like not only to conquer, but to be conquered.

Everybody in Vanity Fair must have remarked how well those live who are comfortably and thoroughly in debt; how they deny themselves nothing; how jolly and easy they are in their minds.

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

This I set down as a positive truth. A woman with fair opportunities, and without a positive hump, may marry whom she likes.

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.

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!

A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.

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

Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

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

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