Top 294 Quotes & Sayings by William Makepeace Thackeray
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!
I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
Whatever you are, be a good one.
It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.
Bravery never goes out of fashion.
What money is better bestowed than that of a schoolboy's tip? How the kindness is recalled by the recipient in after days! It blesses him that gives and him that takes.
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.
Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.
It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.
There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?
Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.
The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.
People hate as they love, unreasonably.
A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.
It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.
Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.
Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.
There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.
When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.
A good laugh is sunshine in the house.
I would rather make my name than inherit it.
It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.
People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.
Almost all women have hearts full of pity.
A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.
What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is!
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.
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.
To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.
Those who are gone, you have. Those who departed loving you, love you still; and you love them always. They are not really gone, those dear hearts and true; they are only gone into the next room; and you will presently get up and follow them, and yonder door will close upon you, and you will be no more seen.
To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight of all.
All is vanity, nothing is fair.
A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
Kindness is very indigestible. It disagrees with very proud stomachs.
No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.
A person can't help their birth.
Life without laughing is a dreary blank.
Frequent the company of your betters.
It's a great comfort to some people to groan over their imaginary ills.
If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.
Life is soul's nursery- its training place for the destinies of eternity.
There is a skeleton in every house.
Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.
Love makes fools of us all, big and little.
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