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The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

William Makepeace Thackeray

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William Makepeace Thackeray
Age: 52 †
Born: 1811
Born: July 18
Died: 1863
Died: December 24
Novelist
Prosaist
Writer
Calcutta
William Makepeace Thackeray
George Fitz-Boodle
Foolish
Shuts
Mouth
Generates
Mouths
Contemplative
Lips
Benevolent
Draws
Pipe
Conversation
Thoughtful
Style
Smoking
Wisdom
Philosopher
Unaffected

More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

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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.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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There is a certain sort of man whose doom in the world is disappointment, who excels in it, and whose luckless triumphs in his meek career of life, I have often thought, must be regarded by the kind eyes above with as much favor as the splendid successes and achievements of coarser and more prosperous men.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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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
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Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?
William Makepeace Thackeray
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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
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Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Ho, pretty page, with the dimpled chin That never has known the barber's shear, All your wish is woman to win, This is the way that boys begin. Wait till you come to Forty Year.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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To forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?
William Makepeace Thackeray
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There is no man that can teach us to be gentlemen better than Joseph Addison.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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What is wanted for the nonce is, that folks should be as agreeable as possible in conversation and demeanor so that good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in societ.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Oh, Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!
William Makepeace Thackeray
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To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Certain corpuscles, denominated Christmas Books, with the ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhilaration, or other expansive emotions, incident upon the exodus of the old and the inauguration of the New Year.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Could the best and kindest of us who depart from the earth have an opportunity of revisiting it, I suppose he or she (assuming that any Vanity Fair feelings subsist in the sphere whither we are bound) would have a pang of mortification at finding how soon our survivors were consoled.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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The thorn in the cushion of the editorial chair.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and planted it, so deal with your compliments through life. An acorn costs nothing, but it may spread into a prodigious timber.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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If people only made prudent marriages, what a stop to population there would be!
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Humor is the mistress of tears.
William Makepeace Thackeray