“Pray, dear madam, another glass; it is Christmas time, it will do you no harm.”
Source: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“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.”
“What is it to be a gentleman? Is it to be honest, to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be wise, and, possessing all these qualities, to exercise them in the most graceful outward manner? Ought a gentleman to be a loyal son, a true husband, an honest father? Ought his life to be decent, his bills to be paid, his taste to be high and elegant, his aims in life lofty and noble?”
Source: Contributions to Punch, Etc.
“And in those varieties of pain of which we spoke anon, what a part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly plant was introduced among us! What myriads of women have cried over it, to be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received refreshment from out of it! Nature meant very gently by women when she made that teaplant; and with a little thought what a series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the teapot and cup!”
“Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men's faces that is honored wherever presented. You cannot help trusting such men. Their very presence gives confidence. There is promise to pay in their faces which gives confidence and you prefer it to another man's endorsement. Character is credit.”
“Might I give counsel to any man, I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and in life, that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admire.”
Source: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
“A good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under heaven; and we look with love and wonder upon its silent grace, its pure fragrance, its delicate bloom of beauty.”
Source: The History of Pendennis, His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
“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.”
Source: Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
“Who has not remarked the readiness with which the closest of friends and honestest of men suspect and accuse each other of cheating when they fall out on money matters? Everybody does it. Everybody is right, I suppose, and the world is a rogue.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, 'To-morrow, success or failure won't matter much; and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil.'”
Source: Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
“We have only to change the point of view and the greatest action looks mean.”
Source: The works of William Makepeace Thackeray
“If I mayn't tell you what I feel, what is the use of a friend?”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“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."”
Source: Miscellanies: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“Our great thoughts, our great affections, the truths of our life, never leave us. Surely they can not separate from our consciousness, shall follow it whithersoever that shall go, and are of their nature divine and immortal.”
Source: Henry Esmond: The English Humourists; The Four Georges
“The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.”
Source: The Newcomes : memoirs of a most respectable family
“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.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray: With Illustrations by the Author, and with Introductory Notes Setting Forth the History of the Several Works in Twenty-two Volumes
“This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is - A sort of soup or broth, or brew, Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes, That Greenwich never could outdo; Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffron, Soles, onions, garlic, roach, and dace; All these you eat at Terre's tavern, In that one dish of Bouillabaisse.”
Source: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best; being pleased by repeated trials, to make . . . pure spirits more pure.”
Source: The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
“Werther had a love for Charlotte Such as words could never utter; Would you know how first he met her? She was cutting bread and butter.”
“Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.”
“It is comparatively easy to leave a mistress, but very hard to be left by one.”
“The affection of young ladies is of as rapid growth as Jack's beanstalk, and reaches up to the sky in a night.”
Source: Vanity Fair (Diversion Classics)
“'No business before breakfast, Glum!' says the King. 'Breakfast first, business next.'”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.”
“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.”
“Tis hard with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have a life enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most, some forty years lease”
Source: The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century
“To forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?”
Source: The Oxford Thackeray: With Illustrations
“So, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy! Pendennis. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.”
“A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.”
Source: Miscellanies: Prose and Verse
“Fairy roses, fairy rings, turn out sometimes troublesome things.”
Source: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“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.”
Source: The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century and Charity and Humour
“What is a gentleman? It is to be honest, to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be wise; and possessed of all these qualities to exercise them in the most graceful manner.”
Source: The Snobs of England: And, Punch's Prize Novelists
“As fits the holy Christmas birth, Be this, good friends, our carol still Be peace on earth, be peace on earth, To men of gentle will.”
Source: Miscellanies: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“When I say that I know women, I mean I know that I don't know them. Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me, as, I have no doubt, she is to herself.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“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.”
“Dare and the world always yields; or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and it will succumb.”
Source: Miscellanies: The memoirs of Barry Lyndon. The history of Samuel Titmarsh and the great Hoggarty diamond. Burlesques
“Though small was your allowance,
You saved a little store:
And those who save a little,
Shall get a plenty more.”
Source: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“Ho, pretty page, with the dimpled chin That never has known the barber's shear, All your wish is woman to win, This is the way that boys begin. Wait till you come to Forty Year.”
Source: Catherine. Titmarsch among pictures and books. Fraser miscellanies. Christmas books. Ballads
“Oh, Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are; How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!”
“[As they say in the old legends]Before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls thither.”
Source: Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
“He was always thinking of his brother's soul, or of the souls of those who differed with him in opinion: it is a sort of comfort which many of the serious give themselves.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
“Charlotte, having seen his body Borne before her on a shutter, Like a well-conducted person, Went on cutting bread and butter.”
Source: Miscellanies: Ballads. The book of snobs. The tremendous adventures of Major Gahagan. The fatal boots. Cox's diary
“If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbor?”
Source: Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
“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.”
Source: The Fitz-Boodle papers, and other sketches
“There is a skeleton in every house.”
“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?”
Source: Miscellanies: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
“I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning.”
Source: Vanity Fair, etc
“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.”
“You must not judge hastily or vulgarly of Snobs: to do so shows that you are yourself a Snob.”
Source: The Book of Snobs
