The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAYIt is an awful thing to get a glimpse, as one sometimes does, when the time is past, of some little, little wheel which works the whole mighty machinery of fate, and see how our destinies turn on a minute’s delay or advance.
More William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes
-
-
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.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
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.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Except for the young or very happy, I can’t say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
The best of women are hypocrites.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Is beauty beautiful, or is it only our eyes that make it so?
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
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!
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Vanity is often the unseen spur.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted my no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forgo even ambition when the end is gained – who can say this is not greatness?
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
One of the greatest of a great man’s qualities is success; ‘t is the result of all the others; ‘t is a latent power in him which compels the favor of the gods, and subjugates fortune.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
You can’t order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
It is comparatively easy to leave a mistress, but very hard to be left by one.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody’s fine feelings may be offended.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Oh, Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are; How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY -
Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang, “Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long.”
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY