It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there.
William Makepeace ThackerayIt is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.
William Makepeace ThackerayOh, brother wearers of motley, are there not moments when one grows sick of grinning and trembling and the jingling of cap and bells?
William Makepeace ThackerayVanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions.
William Makepeace Thackeray