Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray (English Novelist)

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) was a great Victorian novelist whose central literary theme was the expansion of human sympathy.

Born in Calcutta, British India, as the only son of a distinguished member of the India civil service, Thackeray was brought up in luxury reminiscent of a young prince. He was sent to England for his schooling at age five. He attended Cambridge, but left without graduating, after losing some of his inheritance through gambling and business failure. His Indian upbringing and his public school experience feature prominently in The Newcomes (1853–55.)

In 1848, after a long and often disappointing exploration for a profession and a literary voice, Thackeray’s definite breakthrough came with his serialized novel, Vanity Fair (1847–48.) This classic novel about the rise and fall of an Irish adventurer, set at the time of Waterloo and its aftermath, was a satire of the English upper-middle class of early 19th-century society.

Thackeray spent his last decade as a literary celebrity and the editor of the Cornhill magazine.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by William Makepeace Thackeray

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
Topics: Equality

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Appreciation, Excellence

All men who avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or else have gross tastes, and revolt against what is pure.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Woman

I would rather make my name than inherit it.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Inheritance

Which of us that is thirty years old has not had his Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth—the careless sport, the pleasure and passion, the darling joy.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Youth

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

Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Despair

Bravery never goes out of style.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Brave, Courage

Except for the young or very happy, I can’t say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Dying, Death

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Vanity, Conceit

The great moments of life are but moments like the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the eyes, a mere pressure of the hand, may decide it; or of the lips, though they cannot speak.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Trifles

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
Topics: Greatness

Benevolent feeling ennobles the most trifling actions.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Benevolence

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Love, Win, Best

‘Tis not the dying for a faith that’s so hard… ‘Tis the living up to it that’s difficult.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Faith

All is vanity, look you; and so the preacher is vanity too.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Vanity

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Bitterness

They sicken of the calm that know the storm.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Attitude

You who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your pedigree, or are proud of your wealth.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Pride

He who forgets his own friends meanly to follow after those of a higher degree is a snob.
—William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity is often the unseen spur.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Vanity

Next to excellence, comes the appreciation of it.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Motivational, Motivation, Excellence

Christmas is here: Winds whistle shrill, Icy and chill, Little care we; Little we fear Weather without, Sheltered about The Mahogany Tree
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Christmas

They say that every one of us believes in his heart, or would like to have others believe, that he is something which he is not.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Conceit

Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand. The most valuable things, if they have for a long while appeared among us, do not make any impression as they are good, but give us a distaste as they are old. But when the influence of this fantastical humor is over, the same men or things will come to be admired again, by a happy return of our good taste.
—William Makepeace Thackeray

If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbor?
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Temptation

Certain it is that scandal is good brisk talk, whereas praise of one’s neighbor is by no means lively hearing. An acquaintance grilled, scored, devilled, and served with mustard and cayenne pepper excites the appetite; whereas a slice of cold friend with currant jelly is but a sickly, unrelishing meat.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Topics: Shame

We who have lived before railways were made belong to another world. It was only yesterday, but what a gulf between now and then! Then was the old world. Stage-coaches, more or less swift, riding-horses, pack-horses, highwaymen, knights in armor, Norman invaders, Roman legions, Druids, Ancient Britons painted blue, and so forth—all these belong to the old period. But your railroad starts the new era, and we of a certain age belong to the new time and the old one. We who lived before railways, and survive out of the ancient world, are like Father Noah and his family out of the Ark.
—William Makepeace Thackeray

A snob is one who is always pretending to be something better—especially richer or more fashionable than others.
—William Makepeace Thackeray

The acknowledgment of weakness which we make in imploring to be relieved from hunger and from temptation, is surely wisely put in our prayer. Think of it, you who are rich, and take heed how you turn a beggar away.
—William Makepeace Thackeray

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