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Society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society, and conform to its harmless orders.

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
Certain
Conform
Men
Obey
Customs
Bound
Bounds
Law
Ordained
Society
Harmless
Order
Orders

More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

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What stories are new? All types of all characters march through all fables.
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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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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One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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As fits the holy Christmas birth, Be this, good friends, our carol still Be peace on earth, be peace on earth, To men of gentle will.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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An intelligent wife can make her home, in spite of exigencies, pretty much what she pleases.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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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
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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
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So, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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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
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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
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A pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice to subdue a man to enslave him, and enflame him to make him even forget they dazzle him so that the past becomes straightway dim to him and he so prizes them that he would give all his life to possess 'em.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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So they pass away: friends, kindred, the dearest-loved, grown people, aged, infants. As we go on the down-hill journey, the mile-stones are grave-stones, and on each more and more names are written unless haply you live beyond man's common age, when friends have dropped off, and, tottering, and feeble, and unpitied, you reach the terminus alone.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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...the greatest tyrants over women are women.
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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Humor is wit and love.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?
William Makepeace Thackeray
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No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses.
William Makepeace Thackeray