Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out. — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“They talked about each others’ houses, and characters, and families--just as the Joneses do about the Smiths.” — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions. — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“But my kind reader will please to remember that this history has “Vanity Fair” for a title, and that Vanity Fair is… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
Everybody in Vanity Fair must have remarked how well those live who are comfortably and thoroughly in debt; how they deny themselves… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Mr Moss's courtyard is railed in like a cage, lest the gentlemen who are boarding with him should take a fancy to… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“No, you are not worthy of the love which I have devoted to you. I knew all along that the prize I… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“If she did not wish to lead a virtuous life, at least she desired to enjoy a character for virtue, and we… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“he began to feel that she was very lonely indeed. “If he’d been here,” she said, “those cowards would never have dared… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Here’s a 165-year old but still fitting comment on public officials who are so sure they’re right that they’ll drive over a… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“By humbly and frankly acknowledging yourself to be in the wrong, there is no knowing, my son, what good you may do.… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“So there was splendour and wealth, but no great happiness perchance, behind the tall caned portals of Gaunt House with its smoky… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
Could the best and kindest of us who depart from the earth have an opportunity of revisiting it, I suppose he or… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Mrs. O’Dowd, the good housewife, arrayed in curl papers and a camisole, felt that her duty was to act, and not to… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“If he had but a little more brains, she thought to herself, I might make something of him; but she never let… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“As his hero and heroine pass the matrimonial barrier, the novelist generally drops the curtain, as if the drama were over then:… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“George meanwhile, with his hat on one side, his elbows squared, and his swaggering martial air, made for Bedford Row, and stalked… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Be cautious then, young ladies; be wary how you engage. Be shy of loving frankly; never tell all you feel, or (a… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“But, without preaching, the truth may surely be borne in mind, that the bustle, and triumph, and laughter, and gaiety which Vanity… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Vanity Fair--Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read--who had the habits and the… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Jos growled from under the counterpane to know what the time was; but when he at last extorted from the blushing Major… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“And as a general rule, which may make all creditors who are inclined to be severe pretty comfortable in their minds, no… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“When one man has been under very remarkable obligations to another, with whom he subsequently quarrels, a common sense of decency, as… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“It is the pretty face which creates sympathy in the hearts of men, those wicked rogues. A woman may possess the wisdom… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Perhaps as he was lying awake then, his life may have passed before him--his early hopeful struggles, his manly successes and prosperity,… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“To those great geniuses now in petticoats, who shall write novels for the beloved reader's children, these men and things will be as much… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
When one fib becomes due as it were, you must forge another to take up the old acceptance; and so the stock of your… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields,… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
As nature made every man with a nose and eyes of his own, she gave him a character of his own, too; and yet… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
Our great thoughts, our great affections, the truths of our life, never leave us. Surely they can not separate from our consciousness, shall follow… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
Charming Alnaschar visions! it is the happy privilege of youth to construct you. — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
An immense percentage of snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life. — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
“Picture to yourself, O fair young reader, a worldly, selfish, graceless, thankless, religionless old woman, writhing in pain and fear, and without her wig.… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
Certain opuscules, denominated 'Christmas Books,' with the ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhilaration, or other expansive emotions, incident upon the exodus of… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share
