Quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

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

“All is vanity, nothing is fair.””

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

“The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.””

“Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?””

“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 lips are sweet accents render pleasant? And so, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise. ””

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

“In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.””

“Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.””

“The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.””

“The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?””

“...the greatest tyrants over women are women.””

“A good laugh is sunshine in a house””

“Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated.””