William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.

An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.

For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.

I always had the intuition, even as a little child, that I was called for a big project.

When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.

For every social wrong there must be a remedy.

As long as I live I must be a crusader.

I do not wish to be melodramatic, but at some point I have to say it. If something bad should happen to me, I want you to know that my commitment to what I am doing has been freely contracted, with the joy of knowing that this is precisely what I should be doing at this moment. Fear is constantly present in each one of us, because none of us are movie heroes. But we refuse to accept that fear must condition our actions and prevent us from doing what with a cool head and fervent heart we understand should be done.

We would be in trouble as a society if there wasn't a constant pressure to make reforms and to be just.

The great work which is to be done is to change public opinion.

I got a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across, and that's what I'm going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.

I've always had a sense that I am doing something very important, something vital.

Forget being an actor-director: we, as citizens, have the responsibility to make the country a better place. And that doesn't mean advertising other people's agendas; it means looking at what is wrong and making it right.

At last a vision has been vouchsafed to us of our life as a whole. We see the bad with the good.... With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life, without weakening or sentimentalizing it.

What is a man born for but to be a reformer, a remaker of what has been made, a denouncer of lies, a restorer of truth and good?

We human beings cause monstrous conditions, but precisely because we cause them we soon learn to adapt ourselves to them. Only if we become such that we can no longer adapt ourselves, only if, deep inside, we rebel against every kind of evil, will we be able to put a stop to it. ... while everything within us does not yet scream out in protest, so long will we find ways of adapting ourselves, and the horrors will continue.

Purpose has to do with one's calling - deciding what business you are in as a person.

Your work is not your job. Your job is what they pay you to do; your work is what you were born to do.

If you've ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of spirit working through you.

Whether you've found your calling, or if you're still searching, passion should be the fire that drives your life's work.

In life, purpose is defined by the thing that makes you angry. Martin Luther was angry; Mandela was angry; Mahatma Gandhi was angry; Mother Teresa was angry. If you are not angry, you do not have a ministry yet.

They say the two most important days in a person's life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.

Whatever I had read as a child about the saints had thrilled me. I could see the nobility of giving one's life for the sick, the maimed, the leper. But there was another question in my mind. Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place? Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?

A timeless lesson for a deeply fulfilling life is to discover your calling, that special work or consuming occupation that fully engages your special talents with your passions.