William Makepeace Thackeray

Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.

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!

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.

It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.

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.

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

Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for anyone who dies.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.

People hate as they love, unreasonably.

Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.

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.

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

I would rather make my name than inherit it.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

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

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.