It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit. William Makepeace Thackeray More Quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray More Quotes From William Makepeace Thackeray Which of us that is thirty years old has not had its Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth--the careless sport, the pleasure and the passion, the darling joy. William Makepeace Thackeray passion sports lying The unambitious sluggard pretends that the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-spirited coward. William Makepeace Thackeray philosopher coward struggle Oh, my young friends, how delightful is the beginning of a love-business, and how undignified, sometimes, the end! William Makepeace Thackeray young-friends sometimes love 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. William Makepeace Thackeray uniforms lovers heart You read the past in some old faces. William Makepeace Thackeray age faces past He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob. William Makepeace Thackeray snob admire mean To describe love-making is immoral and immodest; you know it is. To describe it as it really is, or would appear to you and me as lookers-on, would be to describe the most dreary farce, to chronicle the most tautological twaddle. To take note of sighs, hand-squeezes, looks at the moon, and so forth--does this business become our dignity as historians? Come away from those foolish young people--they don't want us; and dreary as their farce is, and tautological as their twaddle, you may be sure it amuses them, and that they are happy enough without us. William Makepeace Thackeray moon love hands What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is! William Makepeace Thackeray peacemaker charming It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there. William Makepeace Thackeray grateful reading beautiful If love lives through all life; and survives through all sorrow; and remains steadfast with us through all changes; and in all darkness of spirit burns brightly; and, if we die, deplores us for ever, and loves still equally; and exists with the very last gasp and throb of the faithful bosom--whence it passes with the pure soul, beyond death; surely it shall be immortal! William Makepeace Thackeray faithful soul love In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone. William Makepeace Thackeray parent kind home Tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude, or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being. William Makepeace Thackeray endurance quality heart Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts. William Makepeace Thackeray darling nurse Perhaps all early love affairs ought to be strangled or drowned, like so many blind kittens. William Makepeace Thackeray kitten affair blind A person can't help their birth. William Makepeace Thackeray birth persons helping If success is rare and slow, everybody knows how quick and easy ruin is. William Makepeace Thackeray ruins know-how easy She had not character enough to take to drinking, and moaned about, slip-shod and in curl-papers, all day. William Makepeace Thackeray alcohol drinking character if you are not allowed to touch the heart sometimes in spite of syntax, and are not to be loved until you all know the difference between trimeter and trameter, may all Poetry go to the deuce, and every schoolmaster perish miserably! William Makepeace Thackeray deuces differences heart 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! William Makepeace Thackeray reading writing book I have seen no men in life loving their profession so much as painters, except, perhaps, actors, who, when not engaged themselves, always go to the play. William Makepeace Thackeray acting play men
