“The steps a man takes from the day of his birth until that of his death trace in time an inconceivable figure.”
“A sibling would be the one person in the whole world who would be with you from birth until death. At every step, she or he would be there.”
“Thackeray is careful not to present a protagonist who is malevolently evil from birth; to trace a figure like this is unrewarding certainly to novelist and reader alike.”
“A man begins dying at the moment of his birth. Most People live in denial of Death's patient courtship until, late in life and deep in sickness, they become aware of him sitting bedside.”
“Let every man in mankind's frailty consider his last day; and let none presume on his good fortune until he find Life, at his death, a memory without pain.”
“A man who eats his words is a man who lacks what it takes to speak his piece in this day and age, and in time to come.”