Quotessence
Home / Authors / William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsLoveHeartWorldVanity FairMayKnowsLooksGivingEyePeopleLittlesLifeYearsYoungBookKindPleasureDoe

Famous William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

“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.”

IfsMenWayLoveFeelsHas BeensStoriesThreeLove IsWifeConditionsMastersFoolKingsMarriedLet MeMadnessFortyWarningTemperDeliciousThree TimesWisestMarried LifeBeen In LoveSolomonPretty Woman
Author:William Makepeace Thackeray
Create image

“Only to two or three persons in all the world are the reminiscences of a man's early youth interesting: to the parent who nursed him; to the fond wife or child mayhap afterwards who loves him; to himself always and supremely--whatever may be his actual prosperity or ill fortune, his present age, illness, difficulties, renown, or disappointments--the dawn of his life still shines brightly for him, the early griefs and delights and attachments remain with him ever faithful and dear.”

MenWorldMayChildrenPersonsStillsTwoAgeThreeParentInterestingGriefWifeChildhoodYouthDifficultyShiningFortuneDearIllIllnessDisappointmentProsperityDelightDawnFaithfulAttachmentRenown
Author:William Makepeace Thackeray
Create image

“There is a certain sort of man whose doom in the world is disappointment, who excels in it, and whose luckless triumphs in his meek career of life, I have often thought, must be regarded by the kind eyes above with as much favor as the splendid successes and achievements of coarser and more prosperous men.”

MenWorldKindEyeCertainCareersAchievementDisappointmentFavorsTriumphDoomProsperousSplendidMeek
Book:The Paris sketch book. Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush. The Irish sketch book. Notes of a journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo
Create image

“How do men feel whose whole lives (and many men's lives are) are lies, schemes, and subterfuges? What sort of company do they keep when they are alone? Daily in life I watch men whose every smile is an artifice, and every wink is an hypocrisy. Doth such a fellow where a mask in his own privacy, and to his own conscience?”

MenFeelsWholeLyingCompanyWatchesConscienceFellowsWhole LifeHypocrisyPrivacyMaskSchemesArtificeWatch MeSubterfuge
Book:Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
Create image

“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!”

IfsMenHeartWinningWifeOughtSmartEndureEvery ManMisfortunesFeverBargainsManlyCourtshipGood Wife
Book:The Book of Snobs: And, Sketches and Travels in London ; [Character Sketches]
Create image

“There are other books in a man's library besides Ovid, and after dawdling ever so long at a woman's knee, one day he gets up and is free. We have all been there; we have all had the fever--the strongest and the smallest, from Samson, Hercules, Rinaldo, downward: but it burns out, and you get well.”

MenWellsLongBookOne DayLibraryDevotionGet UpKneesStrongestSmallestFeverGet WellBurn OutSamson
Book:The Book of Snobs: And, Sketches and Travels in London ; [Character Sketches]
Create image

“A gentleman, is a rarer thing than some of us think for. Which of us can point out many such in his circle--men whose aims are generous, whose truth is constant and elevated; who can look the world honestly in the face, with an equal manly sympathy for the great and the small? We all know a hundred whose coats are well made, and a score who have excellent manners; but of gentlemen how many? Let us take a little scrap of paper, and each make out his list.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWorldWellsLooksLittlesMadeFacesTruth IsEqualPaperHundredAimConstantListsHonestlyCirclesMannersExcellentGenerousGentlemanScoreCoatsScrapManlyMake Out
Author:William Makepeace Thackeray
Create image

“How grateful are we--how touched a frank and generous heart is for a kind word extended to us in our pain! The pressure of a tender hand nerves a man for an operation, and cheers him for the dreadful interview with the surgeon.”

MenHeartKindHandsPainGratitudePressureGratefulOperationsGenerousInterviewsTouchedNervesCheerFrankSurgeonsKind WordsGenerous Heart
Book:Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
Create image

“Perhaps there is no greater test of a man's regularity and easiness of conscience than his readiness to face the postman. Blessed is he who is made happy by the sound of a rat-tat! The good are eager for it; but the naughty tremble at the sound thereof.”

MenMadeFacesSoundGreaterConscienceLettersTestsBlessedRatsNaughtyReadinessRegularityPostmanEasiness
Book:The History of Pendennis: Christie's Collections
Create image

“As nature made every man with a nose and eyes of his own, she gave him a character of his own, too; and yet we, O foolish race! must try our very best to ape some one or two of our neighbors, whose ideas fit us no more than their breeches!”

MenTryingMadeTwoIdeasCharacterEyeRaceFitNeighborFoolishEvery ManNosesApes
Book:Miscellanies: The Paris sketch book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh. The memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush. The Irish sketch book. Notes of a journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo
Create image

“Be it remembered that man subsists upon the air more than upon his meat and drink; but no one can exist for an hour without a copious supply of air. The atmosphere which some breathe is contaminated and adulterated, and with its vital principles so diminished that it cannot fully decarbonize the blood, nor fully excite the nervous system.”

MenHoursPrinciplesAirBloodHealthDrinkBreatheNervousAtmosphereRememberedMeatNervous System
Author:William Makepeace Thackeray
Create image

“Our measure of rewards and punishments is most partial and incomplete, absurdly inadequate, utterly worldly; and we wish to continue it into the next world. Into that next and awful world we strive to pursue men, and send after them our impotent paltry verdicts of condemnation or acquittal. We set up our paltry little rod to measure heaven immeasurable.”

MenWorldLittlesNextHeavenWishRewardsStrivePunishmentPursueAwfulWorldlyInadequateIncompleteCondemnationVerdictReward And PunishmentAcquittal
Book:Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
Create image

“A man is seldom more manly than when he is what you call unmanned,--the source of his emotion is championship, pity, and courage; the instinctive desire to cherish those who are innocent and unhappy, and defend those who are tender and weak.”

MenDesireEmotionTearsSourceWeakUnhappyInnocentPityCherishChampionshipManly
Book:Miscellanies: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
Create image

“So they pass away: friends, kindred, the dearest-loved, grown people, aged, infants. As we go on the down-hill journey, the mile-stones are grave-stones, and on each more and more names are written; unless haply you live beyond man's common age, when friends have dropped off, and, tottering, and feeble, and unpitied, you reach the terminus alone.”

PeopleMenAgeNamesCommonWrittenJourneyGoes OnStonesMilesGravesHillsInfantPassing AwayKindred
Book:Miscellanies: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
Create image

“The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.”

MenWorldGivingLooksKindPersonsFacesYoungTurnsChoicesLaughingReflectionGlassesEvery ManCompanionGiving BackJollyVanity Fair
Book:Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
Create image

“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.”

MenLifeGivingTryingBookMightLife IsLeadershipPleasureCompanyLearningGreatnessNotesAdmireGreat MenAdmirationPleasures Of Life
Book:The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
Create image

“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.”

MenWorldDoeMatterFallCheatingSuspectsClosestReadinessRoguesMoney Matters
Book:Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)
Create image

“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?”

IfsMenNaturalPleasureRichFailingFashionTasteFortuneCriminalsIncomeTemptationMortalsMotiveParksIdlePeersCastlesSplendidRich ManAllowanceVoluptuousCourtiers
Book:Miscellanies: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
Create image