There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that appearances can be deceptive, indicating that what seems valuable may not be genuine.
William Makepeace Thackeray's quote highlights the idea that life is full of illusions and deceptions, where things or people that may appear valuable and authentic could actually be fake, and conversely, some that seem ordinary may possess true worth. It encourages a deeper examination of what we perceive in our daily lives and relationships, prompting us to question the authenticity of our judgments based on surface appearances.
In practice
During a speech about overcoming superficial judgments in relationships.
There's a great power of imagination about these little creatures, and a creative fancy and belief that is very curious to watch . . . I am sure that horrid matter-of-fact child-rearers . . . do away with the child's most beautiful privilege. I am determined that Anny shall have a very extensive and instructive store of learning in Tom Thumbs, Jack-the-Giant-Killers, etc.
When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.
And in those varieties of pain of which we spoke anon, what a part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly plant was introduced among us! What myriads of women have cried over it, to be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received refreshment from out of it! Nature meant very gently by women when she made that teaplant; and with a little thought what a series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the teapot and cup!
The play is done; the curtain drops,_x000D_ _x000D_ Slow falling to the prompter's bell_x000D_ _x000D_ A moment yet the actor stops_x000D_ _x000D_ And looks around to say farewell.
The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.
it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.
A person of good intelligence and of sensitivity cannot exist in this society very long without having some anger about the inequality - and it's not just a bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, liberal kind of a thing - it is just a normal human reaction to a nonsensical set of values where we have cinnamon flavored dental floss and there are people sleeping in the street.
The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizons of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again.
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman._x000D_ There is not even a rope to tow the boat, and no one to pull it._x000D_ There is no earth, no sky, no time, no thing, no shore, no ford!
Play is the exultation of the possible.
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