Top 200 William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

102. “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

103. “The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

104. “To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted my no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forgo even ambition when the end is gained – who can say this is not greatness?”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

105. “Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

106. “Charlotte, having seen his body Borne before her on a shutter, Like a well-conducted person, Went on cutting bread and butter.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

107. “Novels are sweets. All people with healthy literary appetites love them-almost all women; a vast number of clever, hardheaded men.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

108. “Might I give counsel to any man, I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and in life, that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admire.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

109. “Love seems to survive life, and to reach beyond it. I think we take it with us past the grave. Do we not still give it to those who have left us? May we not hope that they feel it for us, and that we shall leave it here in one or two fond bosoms, when we also are gone?”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

110. “The affection of young ladies is of as rapid growth as Jack’s beanstalk, and reaches up to the sky in a night.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

111. “If fun is good, truth is still better, and love best of all.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

112. “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

113. “The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

114. “If you will fling yourself under the wheels, Juggernaut will go over you; depend upon it.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

115. “To forego even ambition when the end is gained – who can say this is not greatness?”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

116. “Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

117. “Charming Alnaschar visions! it is the happy privilege of youth to construct you.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

118. “Humor is wit and love.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

119. “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

120. “Ah me! we wound where we never intended to strike; we create anger where we never meant harm; and these thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. – William Makepeace Thackeray.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

121. “Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

122. “When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

123. “Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

124. “The death of a child occasions a passion of grief and frantic tears, such as your end, brother reader, will never inspire.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

125. “Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

126. “Life is the soul’s nursery.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

127. “When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

128. “If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

129. “Alas! we are the sport of destiny.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

130. “Perhaps all early love affairs ought to be strangled or drowned, like so many blind kittens.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

131. “Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

132. “Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

133. “Life without laughing is a dreary blank.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

134. “A man is seldom more manly than when he is what you call unmanned, – the source of his emotion is championship, pity, and courage; the instinctive desire to cherish those who are innocent and unhappy, and defend those who are tender and weak.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

135. “He had placed himself at her feet so long that the poor little woman had been accustomed to trample upon him. She didn’t wish to marry him, but she wished to keep him. She wished to give him nothing, but that he should give her all. It is a bargain not unfrequently levied in love.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

136. “Kindness is very indigestible. It disagrees with proud stomachs.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

137. “True love is better than glory.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

138. “A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better – especially richer or more fashionable – than he is.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

139. “Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang, “Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long.””

— William Makepeace Thackeray

140. “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

141. “Perhaps there is no greater test of a man’s regularity and easiness of conscience than his readiness to face the postman. Blessed is he who is made happy by the sound of a rat-tat! The good are eager for it; but the naughty tremble at the sound thereof.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

142. “Werther had a love for Charlotte Such as words could never utter; Would you know how first he met her? She was cutting bread and butter.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

143. “A woman’s heart is just like a lithographer’s stone; what is once written upon it cannot be rubbed out.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

144. “What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

145. “If people only made prudent marriages, what a stop to population there would be!”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

146. “It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

147. “The thorn in the cushion of the editorial chair.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

148. “Come forward, some great marshal, and organize equality in society, and your rod shall swallow up all the juggling old court gold-sticks.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

149. “Who has not remarked the readiness with which the closest of friends and honestest of men suspect and accuse each other of cheating when they fall out on money matters? Everybody does it. Everybody is right, I suppose, and the world is a rogue.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray

150. “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