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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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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
Gained
Greatness
Ambition
Ends
Even
Forego
Intrigue
More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray
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
I would rather make my name than inherit it.
William Makepeace Thackeray
There is no man that can teach us to be gentlemen better than Joseph Addison.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Life is the soul's nursery.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Almost all women have hearts full of pity.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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
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
What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her!
William Makepeace Thackeray
Everybody in Vanity Fair must have remarked how well those live who are comfortably and thoroughly in debt how they deny themselves nothing how jolly and easy they are in their minds.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Be it remembered that man subsists upon the air more than upon his meat and drink but no one can exist for an hour without a copious supply of air. The atmosphere which some breathe is contaminated and adulterated, and with its vital principles so diminished that it cannot fully decarbonize the blood, nor fully excite the nervous system.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, - a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them, - the truffles were coming.
William Makepeace Thackeray
If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
William Makepeace Thackeray
People hate as they love, unreasonably.
William Makepeace Thackeray
It is an awful thing to get a glimpse, as one sometimes does, when the time is past, of some little, little wheel which works the whole mighty machinery of fate, and see how our destinies turn on a minute's delay or advance.
William Makepeace Thackeray
We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best being pleased by repeated trials, to make . . . pure spirits more pure.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Titles are abolished and the American Republic swarms with men claiming and bearing them.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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
It is comparatively easy to leave a mistress, but very hard to be left by one.
William Makepeace Thackeray