Vanity Fair Quotes

• To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Love, Life, Relationship

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1850). “The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy”, p.9

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• 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.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Reflection, Men, Glasses

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)”, p.540, Delphi Classics

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• Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Party, Two, Cynical

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2016). “Vanity Fair (Diversion Classics)”, p.160, Diversion Books

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

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Family, Mothers Day, God

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1853). “Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero”, p.317

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• Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Happiness, Joy, Desire

  Vanity Fair ch. 67 (1847 - 1848)

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• Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Revenge, Wicked, May

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)”, p.540, Delphi Classics

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• The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Names, Vices, Double Standard

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2000). “Vanity Fair: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.952, Modern Library

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• If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life.'

  Bruce Jenner

  Lying, Vanity, Secret

  "Caitlyn Jenner: The Full Story" By Buzz Bissinger, www.vanityfair.com. July 2015.

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• if you are not allowed to touch the heart sometimes in spite of syntax, and are not to be loved until you all know the difference between trimeter and trameter, may all Poetry go to the deuce, and every schoolmaster perish miserably!

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Heart, Differences, Deuces

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1854). “Vanity Fair, etc”, p.92

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• The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Fall, Doubt, Wicked

  The Newcomes ch. 20 (1853 - 1855)

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• Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Children, Play, Childhood

  Vanity Fair ch. 67 (1847 - 1848)

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• If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Character, Men, Abuse

  'Vanity Fair' (1847-8) ch. 19

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• A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry WHOM SHE LIKES.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Marriage, Opportunity, May

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2015). “Vanity Fair”, p.40, BookRix

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• Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Children, Play, Desire

  Vanity Fair ch. 67 (1847 - 1848)

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

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Positive, Attitude, Reflection

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2015). “Vanity Fair”, p.15, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Vanity, Wicked, Foolish

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2016). “Vanity Fair (Diversion Classics)”, p.103, Diversion Books

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• Vanity Fair has but two major articles in its editorial creed: first, to believe in the progress and promise of American life, and, second, to chronicle that progress cheerfully, truthfully, and entertainingly.

  Frank Crowninshield

  Believe, Two, Vanity

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• Vanity Fair magazine reports that former President Clinton and Al Gore haven't spoken to each other since George W. Bush's inauguration. Not only that, Bill and his wife, Hillary, haven't spoken since Richard Nixon's inauguration.

  Conan O'Brien

  Vanity, Wife, President

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• I majored in English in college and that was my major in graduate school before switching to creative writing. I read a lot of [Charles] Dickens and [Anthony ] Trollope, but there was lots of stuff I hadn't read like Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which is so well written and funny.

  Stephen Dobyns

  Writing, School, College

  Source: www.bostonglobe.com

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• The greatest thing that prepared me for editing Vanity Fair was having four kids because you just learn to subjugate your ego with the greater interest in mind.

  Graydon Carter

  Kids, Vanity, Editing

  "Vanity flair". Interview with Janine Gibson, www.theguardian.com. December 10, 2007.

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• Vanitas vanitatum has rung in the ears Of gentle and simple for thousands of years; The wail still is heard, yet its notes never scare Either simple or gentle from Vanity Fair.

  Frederick Locker-Lampson

  Simple, Vanity, Years

  Frederick Locker-Lampson (1874). “London Lyrics”, p.32

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• 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.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Vanity, Mind, Debt

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1853). “Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero”, p.177

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• After the war in Afghanistan, Anna [Wintour, editor of Vogue], deciding to save the world one hair-roller at a time, thought the best way to help the women in this beleaguered country was to start a small beauty school in Kabul, where aid workers could get their roots done. Vanity Fair, edited by Bush-basher Graydon Carter, cheered her great humanitarian effort.

  Myrna Blyth

  Country, War, School

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• Could the best and kindest of us who depart from the earth have an opportunity of revisiting it, I suppose he or she (assuming that any Vanity Fair feelings subsist in the sphere whither we are bound) would have a pang of mortification at finding how soon our survivors were consoled.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Opportunity, Vanity, Feelings

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1848). “Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero”, p.256

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• I'm not sure if guys are supposed to read Vanity Fair. I feel very metrosexual with it but am not sure it's in my comfort zone.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Vanity, Guy, Comfort

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