When we say of a gentleman that he lives elegantly on nothing a year, we use the word “nothing” to signify something unknown; meaning, simply, that we don’t know how the gentleman in question defrays...

By economy and good management — by a sparing use of ready money and by paying scarcely anybody, — people can manage to make a great show with very little means.

The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish: it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

‘Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

So he sighed and pined and ogled,And his passion boiled and bubbled,Till he blew his silly brains out,And no more was by it troubled.

Ah vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of fate are, How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are

Always remember to take the door-key.

. . . it tastes well, the bread which you earn yourself.

What money is better bestowed than that of a schoolboy’s tip? How the kindness is recalled by the recipient in after days! It blesses him that gives and him that takes.

> A Tragic Story> — William M. Thackeray> > There lived a sage in days of yore,> And he a handsome pigtail wore;> But wondered much, and sorrowed more,> Because it hung behind him.> >...

It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.

People hate as they love, unreasonably.

Certain opuscules, denominated ‘Christmas Books,’ with the ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhilaration, or other expansive emotions, incident upon the exodus of the old and the inauguration of the new year

That which we call a snob by any other name would still be snobbish

Then sing as Martin Luther sang:”Who loves not wine, woman, and song,He is a fool his whole life long!”

He that hath ears to hear, let him stuff them with cotton.

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

And oh, what a mercy it is that these women do not exercise their powers oftener! We can’t resist them, if they do. Let them show ever so little inclination, and men go down on...

She looks so haughty that I should have thought her a princess at the very least, with a pedigree reaching as far back as the Deluge. But this lady was no better born than many...

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

Except for the young or very happy, I can’t say I am sorry for anyone who dies.

I would rather make my name than inherit it

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.

Humor is wit and love.

‘Tis not the dying for a faith that’s so hard… ‘Tis the living up to it that’s difficult.

We should pay as much reverence to youth as we should to age; there are points in which you young folks are altogether our superiors: and I can’t help constantly crying out to persons of...

If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect...

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,...

There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you...

It is best to love wisely, no doubt: but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

Who misses, or who wins the prize? Go, lose and conquer as you can: But if you fail, or if you rise, Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.

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.

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.