William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

194 Sourced Quotes

It 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.

William Makepeace Thackeray
An immense percentage of snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life.

William Makepeace Thackeray
When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.

William Makepeace Thackeray
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.

William Makepeace Thackeray
You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your wealth.

William Makepeace Thackeray
I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning.

William Makepeace Thackeray
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.

William Makepeace Thackeray
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.

William Makepeace Thackeray
When a mother, as fond mothers will; vows that she knows every thought in her daughter's heart, I think she pretends to know a great deal too much.

William Makepeace Thackeray
Novels are sweets. All people with healthy literary appetites love them-almost all women; a vast number of clever, hardheaded men.

William Makepeace Thackeray
Know ye the willow-tree, Whose grey leaves quiver, Whispering gloomily To yon pale river?

William Makepeace Thackeray
When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.

William Makepeace Thackeray
Ah! gracious Heaven gives us eyes to see our own wrong, however dim age may make them; and knees not too stiff to kneel, in spite of years, cramp, and rheumatism.

William Makepeace Thackeray
I suppose as long as novels last, and authors aim at interesting their public, there must always be in the story a virtuous and gallant hero; a wicked monster, his opposite; and a pretty girl, who finds a champion. Bravery and virtue conquer beauty; and vice, after seeming to triumph through a certain number of pages, is sure to be discomfited in the last volume, when justice overtakes him, and honest folks come by their own.

William Makepeace Thackeray