“There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write.”

— William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond (1852), Bk. II, Ch. 1

About William Makepeace Thackeray

1811 – 1863

English novelist, author of "Vanity Fair".

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

“Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb.”

“Good humour may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.”

“Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement.”

“Remember that all is opinion.”

“The universe is flux, life is opinion.”

“He had only one vanity; he thought he could give advice better than any other person.”

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem—in my opinion—to characterize our age.”

“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”