Quote#Books & Reading
If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's…
Quote byWilliam Makepeace Thackeray · 1811–1863
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Ch. 42..
English (original)
If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!
— William Makepeace Thackeray
More from William Makepeace Thackeray
A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one.
She looks so haughty that I should have thought her a princess at the very least, with a pedigree reaching as far back as the Deluge. But this lady was no better born than many other ladies who give themselves airs; and all sensible people …
Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for any one who dies.
I should like to see before I die, and think of it daily more and more, the commencement of Jesus Christ's christianism in the world, where I am sure people may be made a hundred times happier than by its present forms, Judaism, …
Profoundly grateful, and as if I had swallowed a small baby. … Why, they are perfect beasts of oysters!
The unambitious sluggard pretends that the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-spirited coward.