William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes - Page 3

Humor is wit and love.

Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?

When [men] see a pretty woman, and feel the delicious madness of love coming over them, they always stop to calculate her temper, her money, their own money, or suitableness for the married life.... Ha, ha, ha! Let us fool in this way no more. I have been in love forty-three times with all ranks and conditions of women, and would have married every time if they would have let me. How many wives had King Solomon, the wisest of men? And is not that story a warning to us that Love is master of the wisest? It is only fools who defy him.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

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

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.

Frequent the company of your betters.

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.

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.

Bad husbands will make bad wives.

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

Benevolence and feeling ennoble the most trifling actions.

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

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

Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

A person can't help their birth.

Those who are gone, you have. Those who departed loving you, love you still; and you love them always. They are not really gone, those dear hearts and true; they are only gone into the next room; and you will presently get up and follow them, and yonder door will close upon you, and you will be no more seen.

What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is!

Sir, Respect Your Dinner: idolize it, enjoy it properly. You will be many hours in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life happier if you do.

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

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

The great moments of life are but moments like the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the eyes; a mere pressure of the hand, may decide it; or of the lip,s though they cannot speak.

Love makes fools of us all, big and little.

Almost all women have hearts full of pity.

What, indeed, does not that word "cheerfulness" imply? It means a contented spirit, it means a pure heart, it means a kind and loving disposition; it means humility and charity; it means a generous appreciation of others, and a modest opinion of self.