William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

“Here’s a 165-year old but still fitting comment on public officials who are so sure they’re right that they’ll drive over a cliff rather than compromise: “Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt – are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: a Novel without a Hero (1848).The author’s middle name really was “Makepeace.” As the quote shows, he disliked those who would not.”

“If she did not wish to lead a virtuous life, at least she desired to enjoy a character for virtue, and we know that no lady in the genteel world can possess this desideratum, until she has put on a train and feathers and has been presented to her Sovereign at Court. From that august interview they come out stamped as honest women. The Lord Chamberlain gives them a certificate of virtue.”

“It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.”

“When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.”

“When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.”

“Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.”

“A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

“It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.”

“Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.”