William Makepeace Thackeray - The History of Henry Esmond (1852)

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'Tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude, or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being.

William Makepeace Thackeray
There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write.

William Makepeace Thackeray
'Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harry — every man of every nation has done that — 'tis the living up to it that is difficult, as I know to my cost.

William Makepeace Thackeray
'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

William Makepeace Thackeray
At certain periods of life, we live years of emotion in a few weeks, and look back on those times as on great gaps between the old life and the new.

William Makepeace Thackeray
What man's life is not overtaken by one or more of those tornadoes that send us out of the course, and fling us on rocks to shelter as best we may?

William Makepeace Thackeray
Forgotten tones of love recur to us, and kind glances shine out of the past--oh so bright and clear!--oh so longed after!--because they are out of reach; as holiday music from within a prison wall--or sunshine seen through the bars; more prized because unattainable--more bright because of the contrast of present darkness and solitude, whence there is no escape.

William Makepeace Thackeray