Young ladies may have been crossed in love, and have had their sufferings, their frantic moments of grief and tears, their wakeful nights, and so forth; but it is only in very sentimental novels that people occupy themselves perpetually with that passion, and I believe what are called broken hearts are a very rare article indeed.
William Makepeace ThackerayWe are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.
William Makepeace ThackerayShe had not character enough to take to drinking, and moaned about, slip-shod and in curl-papers, all day.
William Makepeace ThackerayAs an occupation in declining years, I declare I think saving is useful, amusing and not unbecoming. It must be a perpetual amusement. It is a game that can be played by day, by night, at home and abroad, and at which you must win in the long run. . . . What an interest it imparts to life!.
William Makepeace ThackeraySince the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.
William Makepeace ThackerayA woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a plain face. What folly will not a pair of bright eyes make pardonable? What dullness may not red lips are sweet accents render pleasant? And so, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise.
William Makepeace Thackeray