Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackery.
| on gentility | And it must be remembered, that this poor lady had never met a gentleman in her life until this present moment. Perhaps these are rarer personages than some of us think for. Which of us can point out any in his circle--men whose aims are generous, whose truth is constant, and not only constant in its kind but elevated in its degree; whose want of meanness makes them simple: who can look the world honestly in the face with an equal manly sympathy for the great and the small? We all know a hundred whose coats are very well made, and a score who have excellent manners, and one or two happy beings who are what they call in their inner circles, and have shot into the very centre and bull's-eye of the fashion; but of gentleman how many? Let us take a little scrap of paper and each make out his list. |
| on pious condescension | "And for what follows after death," would Mr Crawley observe, throwing his gooseberry-coloured eyes up to the ceiling. He was always thinking of his brother's soul, or of the souls of those who differed with him in opinion: it is a sort of comfort which many of the serious give themselves. |
| on courtship | Dulness gets on as well as any other quality with women. |
| on marriage | As an observer of human nature, I regularly frequent St George's, Hanover Square, during the genteel marriage season; and though I have never seen the bridegroom's male friends give way to tears, or the beadles and officiating clergy any way affected, yet it is not at all uncommon to see women who are not in the least concerned in the operations going on -- old ladies who are long past marrying, stout middle-aged females with plenty of sons and daughters, let alone pretty young creatures in pink bonnets, who are on their promotion, and may naturally take an interest in the ceremony, -- I say it is quite common to see the women present piping, sobbing, sniffling; hiding their little faces in their little useless pocket-handkerchiefs; and behaving, old and young, with emotion. |
| on feuds | One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent. |
| on engagement | A long engagement is a partnership which one party is free to keep or to break, but which involves all the capital of the other. |
| on politic behaviour | Praise everybody, I say to such: never be squeamish, but speak out your compliment both point-blank in a man's face, and behind his back, when you know there is a reasonable chance of his hearing it again. Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. |
| on family | Yes, if a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relation to do the business. |
| on letters | There ought to be a law in Vanity Fair ordering the destruction of every written document (except receipted tradesmen's bills) after a certain brief and proper interval. Those quacks and misanthropes who advertise indelible Japan ink should be made to perish along with their wicked discoveries. The best ink for Vanity Fair use would be one that faded utterly in a couple of days, and left the paper clean and blank, so that you might write on it to somebody else. |
| on admitting error | By humbly and frankly acknowledging yourself to be in the wrong, there is no knowing, my son, what good you may do. I knew once a gentleman, and very worthy practitioner in Vanity Fair, who used to do little wrongs to his neighbours on purpose, and in order to apologise for them in an open and manly way afterwards--and what ensued? My friend Crocky Doyle was liked everywhere, and deemed to be rather impetuous--but the honestest fellow. |
| on living beyond one's means | Everybody in Vanity Fair must have remarked how well those live who are comfortably and thoroughly in debt: how they deny themselves nothing; how jolly and easy they are in their minds. |
| on credit | Long custom, a manly appearance, faultless boots and clothes, and a happy fierceness of manner, will often help a man as much as a great balance at the banker's. |
| on women | No woman ever was really angry at a romantic marriage...There is something about a runaway match with which few ladies can be seriously angry, and Amelia rather rose in their estimation, from the sprit which she had displayed in consenting to the union. |
| on fulham | The very valet was ashamed of mentioning the address to the hackney-coachman before the hotel waiters, and promised to instruct him when they got further on. |
| on attorneys | Ye gods, what do not attorneys and attorneys' clerks know in London! Nothing is hidden from their inquisition, and their familiars mutely rule our city. |
| on pride | He was proud of his hatred as of everything else. Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these great qualities with which dulness takes the lead in the world? |
| on how to age well | Time has dealt kindly with that stout officer, as it does ordinarily with men who have good stomachs and good tempers, and are not perplexed over much by fatigue of the brain. |
| on gentility, again | his previous education, humble and contracted as it had been, had made a much better gentleman of Georgy than any plans of his grandfater could make him. |
| on gentility, yet again | if she never said brilliant things, she never spoke of thought unkind ones: guileless and artless, loving and pure, indeed how could our poor little Amelia be other than a real gentlewoman. |
| on mothers | Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. |
| on outlook | 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, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice. |
| on the junior league (kinda) |
Managing women, the ornaments of their sex, -- women who order everything for
everybody, and know so much better than any person concerned what is good for
their neighbours, -- don't sometimes speculate upon the possibility of a
domestic revolt, or upon other extreme consequences resulting from their
overstrained authority.
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