Quote

Certain it is that scandal is good brisk talk, whereas praise of one's neighbor is by no means lively hearing. An acquaintance grilled, scored, devilled, and served with mustard and cayenne pepper excites the appetite whereas a slice of cold friend with currant jelly is but a sickly, unrelishing meat.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Good
Hearing
Lively
Sickly
Praise
Acquaintance
Pepper
Friend
Scandal
Scored
Cold
Served
Mustard
Talk
Appetite
Peppers
Means
Whereas
Slice
Certain
Meat
Jelly
Brisk
Mean
Neighbor
Excites
Grilled

More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

Image
If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
When a mother, as fond mothers will vows that she knows every thought in her daughter's heart, I think she pretends to know a great deal too much.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Love makes fools of us all, big and little.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody's fine feelings may be offended.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best being pleased by repeated trials, to make . . . pure spirits more pure.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Who feels injustice, who shrinks before a slight, who has a sense of wrong so acute, and so glowing a gratitude for kindness, as a generous boy?
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
We can't all be lions in this world. There must be some lambs, harmless, kindly, gregarious creatures for eating and shearing.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Women like not only to conquer, but to be conquered.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
All amusements to which virtuous women are not admitted, are, rely upon it, deleterious in their nature.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
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
Image
For his part, every beauty of art or nature made him thankful as well as happy, and that the pleasure to be had in listening to fine music, as in looking at the stars in the sky, or at a beautiful landscape or picture, was a benefit for which we might thank Heaven as sincerely as for any other worldly blessing.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
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
Image
You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob as are you who boast of your wealth.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
The world is good natured to people who are good natured.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy! Pendennis. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
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.
William Makepeace Thackeray