Quote

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

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
Beautiful
Rooms
Round
Cannot
Grace
Rounds
Thanked
Truth
Full
Table
Partake
Seems
Books
Tables
Birthright
Find
Reading
British
Museum
Book
Heaven
English
Freely
Without
Speak
Grateful
Museums
Heart
Place
Room
Reverence

More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

Image
There is no good in living in a society where you are merely the equal of everybody else. The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
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
Image
Ah! gracious Heaven gives us eyes to see our own wrong, however dim age may make them and knees not too stiff to kneel, in spite of years, cramp, and rheumatism.
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
I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Oh, my young friends, how delightful is the beginning of a love-business, and how undignified, sometimes, the end!
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
The great quality of Dulness is to be unalterably contented with itself.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
As an occupation in declining years, I declare I think saving is useful, amusing and not unbecoming. It must be a perpetual amusement. It is a game that can be played by day, by night, at home and abroad, and at which you must win in the long run. . . . What an interest it imparts to life!.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
I would rather make my name than inherit it.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
To forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbor?
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Next to eating good dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind, must like, I think, to read about them.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
If fathers are sometimes sulky at the appearance of the destined son-in-law, is it not a fact that mothers become sentimental and, as it were, love their own loves over again.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
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
Image
When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
What, indeed, does not that word cheerfulness imply? It means a contented spirit, it means a pure heart, it means a kind and loving disposition it means humility and charity it means a generous appreciation of others, and a modest opinion of self.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Image
Vanity is often the unseen spur.
William Makepeace Thackeray