William Makepeace Thackeray
It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
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.
Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?
The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
People hate as they love, unreasonably.
I would rather make my name than inherit it.
Follow your honest convictions and be strong.
I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.
Bravery never goes out of fashion.
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.
There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.
Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.
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.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.
An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.
People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.
Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
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!
Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.
Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.
It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.
Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.Collection: Life
Let us be very gentle with our neighbors' failings, and forgive our friends their debts as we hope ourselves to be forgiven.Collection: Forgiving
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Life
If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.Collection: Wise
Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?Collection: Littles
All is vanity, nothing is fair.Collection: Vanity
A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.Collection: Ears
A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.Collection: Heart
Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.Collection: Friendship
Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.Collection: Expectations
Life is soul's nursery- its training place for the destinies of eternity.Collection: Destiny
The world is good natured to people who are good natured.Collection: Positive
No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.Collection: Life
Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.Collection: Revenge
It is from the level of calamities, not that of every-day life, that we learn impressive and useful lessons.Collection: Levels
Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody's fine feelings may be offended.Collection: Light
The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.Collection: Names
Women are jealous of cigars... they regard them as a strong rival.Collection: Strong
Young ladies may have been crossed in love, and have had their sufferings, their frantic moments of grief and tears, their wakeful nights, and so forth; but it is only in very sentimental novels that people occupy themselves perpetually with that passion, and I believe what are called broken hearts are a very rare article indeed.Collection: Disappointment
It is a friendly heart that has plenty of friends.Collection: Friends
Business first; pleasure afterwards.Collection: Firsts
Love seems to survive life, and to reach beyond it. I think we take it with us past the grave. Do we not still give it to those who have left us? May we not hope that they feel it for us, and that we shall leave it here in one or two fond bosoms, when we also are gone?Collection: Love