William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeraywas an English novelist of the 19th century. He is famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 July 1811
sex men tyrants
Who has not seen how women bully women? What tortures have men to endure compared to those daily repeated shafts of scorn and cruelty with which poor women are riddled by the tyrants of their sex?
men pretending snob
A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.
riches rich
To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.
men play acting
I have seen no men in life loving their profession so much as painters, except, perhaps, actors, who, when not engaged themselves, always go to the play.
father occasions
Sure, occasion is the father of most that is good in us.
fate littles way
When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.
health men air
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.
grace faces form
In effective womanly beauty form is more than face, and manner more than either.
happiness paradise serpent
Happy! Who is happy? Was there not a serpent in Paradise itself? And if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand, would she have listened to the tempter?
believe found percentages
An immense percentage of snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life.
character mean safe
He who meanly admires a mean thing is a snob--perhaps that is a safe definition of the character.
evil long mind
I have long gone about with a conviction on my mind that I had a work to do-a Work, if you like, with a great W; a Purpose to fulfil; ... a Great Social Evil to Discover and to Remedy.
husband writing years
To know nothing, or little, is in the nature of some husbands. To hide, in the nature of how many women? Oh, ladies! how many of you have surreptitious milliners' bills? How many of you have gowns and bracelets which you daren't show, or which you wear trembling?--trembling, and coaxing with smiles the husband by your side, who does not know the new velvet gown from the old one, or the new bracelet from last year's, or has any notion that the ragged-looking yellow lace scarf cost forty guineas and that Madame Bobinot is writing dunning letters every week for the money!
sports lying passion
Which of us that is thirty years old has not had its Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth--the careless sport, the pleasure and the passion, the darling joy.