Quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

“To love and win is the best thing.To love and lose, the next best.”

“A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry WHOM SHE LIKES.”

“Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?”

“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...”

“In a word, in adversity she was the best of comforters, in good fortune the most troublesome of friends...”

“Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.”

“To part with money is a sacrifice beyond almost all men endowed with a sense of order. There is scarcely any man alive who does not think himself meritorious for giving his neighbour five pounds. T...”

“A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one.”

“Here is a minute. It may be my love is dead, but here is a minute to kneel over the grave and pray by it.”

“It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now”

“think of the condition of Europe for twenty years before, where people were fighting, not by thousands, but by millions; each one of whom as he struck his enemy wounded horribly some other innocent...”

“If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the business.”

“Revenge may be wicked, but its natural.”

“His Scotch bear-leader, Mr Boswell, was a butt of the first quality.”

“Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.”

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

“I have long gone about with a conviction on my mind that I had a work to doa Work, if you like, with a great W; a Purpose to fulfil; ... a Great Social Evil to Discover and to Remedy.”

“A woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a plain face. What folly will not a pair of bright eyes make pardonable? What dullness may not red lip...”

“She had not character enough to take to drinking, and moaned about, slip-shod and in curl-papers, all day.”

“Indeed, for my own part, though I have been repeatedly told by persons for whom I have the greatest respect, that Miss Brown is an insignificant chit, and Mrs. White has nothing but her petit minoi...”