William Thackeray

" Never lose a chance of saying a kind word."

The play is done-the curtain drops,
Slow falling to he prompter's bell;
A moment yet he actor stops,
And looks around, to say farewell.
It is an irksome word and task;
And when he's laughed and said his say,
He shows, as he removes the mask,
A face that's anything but gay.

Sow a thought,
and reap an action.
Sow an action,
and reap a habit.
Sow a habit,
and reap character.
Sow character,
and reap destiny.

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.

Never marry with the expectation of changing a person.

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.

How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy! Pendennis. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.

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.

We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best; being pleased by repeated trials, to make . . . pure spirits more pure.

Oh, Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are; How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!