Charles Dickens Quotes

My sister having so much to do, was going to church vicariously, that is to say, Joe and I were goin...

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should...

The year was dying early, the leaves were falling fast, it was a raw cold day when we took possessio...

Casting my eyes on Mr. Wemmick as we went along, to see what he was like in the light of day, I foun...

Mr Pickwick awoke the next morning, there was not a symptom of rheumatism about him; which proves, a...

Company, you see - company is - is - it's a very different thing from solitude - an't it?

It is the fate of most men who mingle with the world, and attain even the prime of life, to make man...

Poetry makes life what lights and music do the stage.

I never heerd...nor read of nor see in picters, any angel in tights and gaiters...but...he's a reg'l...

She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and en...

He was simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and in the small. So all true s...

But Rosa soon made the discovery that Miss Twinkleton didn't read fairly. She cut the love-scenes, i...

Who is Mr. Jasper?"Rosa turned aside her head in answering: "Eddy's uncle, and my music-master.""You...

For certain, neither of them sees a happy Present, as the gate opens and closes, and one goes in, an...

Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong...

And here you see me working out, as cheerfully and thankfully as I may, my doom of sharing in the gl...

That I growed up a man and not a beast says something for me.

A man may live to be as old as Methuselah,’ said Mr. Filer, ‘and may labour all his life for the ben...

A new heart for a New Year, always!

Oh, let us love our occupations,Bless the squire and his relations,Live upon our daily rations,And a...

So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you!

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeli...

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeli...

It is a place that 'grows upon you' every day. There seems to be always something to find out in it....

The fire? It has been alive as long as I have. We talk and think together all night long. It’s like ...

Wish me everything that you can wish for the woman you dearly love, and I have as good as got it, Jo...

Give me a moment, because I like to cry for joy. It's so delicious, John dear, to cry for joy.

We are thankful to come here for rest, sir," said Jenny. "You see, you don't know what the rest of t...

And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at istelf and dies with the doer of it! but...

[She wasn't] a logically reasoning woman, but God is good, and hearts may count in heaven as high as...

Are you thankful for not being young?''Yes, sir. If I was young, it would all have to be gone throug...

Bradley Headstone, in his decent black coat and waistcoat, and decent white shirt, and decent formal...

I really am a little afraid, my dear,” hinted the cherub meekly, “that you are not enjoying yourself...

...and he glanced at the backs of the books, with an awakened curiosity that went below the binding....

Ah me!" said he, "what might have been is not what is!

There are some promotions in life, which, independent of the more substantial rewards they offer, ac...

Let the tears which fell, and the broken words which were exchanged in the long close embrace betwee...

For the rest of his life, Oliver Twist remembers a single word of blessing spoken to him by another ...

Your tale is of the longest," observed Monks, moving restlessly in his chair.It is a true tale of gr...

There are a good many books, are there not, my boy?” said Mr. Brownlow, observing the curiosity with...

The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempt...

He spoke in hard and angry earnest, if a man ever did," replied the girl, shaking her head. "He is a...

The great principle of out-of-door relief is, to give the paupers exactly what they don't want; and ...

Dickens writes that one of his characters, "listened to everything without seeming to, which showed ...

Oh! if, when we oppress and grind our fellow-creatures, we bestowed but one thought on the dark evid...

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

Some conjurers say that number three is the magic number, and some say number seven. It's neither my...

But struggling with these better feelings was pride,--the vice of the lowest and most debased creatu...

Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people...

Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief itself arose s...

Bless the bright eyes of your sex! They never see, whether for good or bad, more than one side of an...

It is the custom on the stage: in all good, murderous melodramas: to present the tragic and the comi...

If an enthusiastic, ardent, and ambitous man marry a wife on whose name there is a stain, which, tho...

I loved you madly; in the distasteful work of the day, in the wakeful misery of the night, girded by...

Gradually, he fell into that deep tranquil sleep which ease from recent suffering alone imparts; tha...

Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now ...

Such a number of nights,' said the girl, with a touch of woman's tenderness, which communicated some...

I know that she deserves the best and purest love the heart of man can offer," said Mrs. Maylie; "I ...

As she stooped over him, her tears fell upon his forehead.The boy stirred, and smiled in his sleep, ...

It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wound...

To do a great right, you may do a little wrong; and you may take any means which the end to be attai...

I have seen enough, too, to know that it is not always the youngest and best who are spared to those...

I only hope, for the sake of the rising male sex generally, that you may be found in as vulnerable a...

Your haughty religious people would have held their heads up to see me as I am tonight, and preached...

Oliver has long since grown stout and healthy; but health or sickness made no difference in his warm...

Always the way!" muttered the Jew to himself as he turned homewards. "The worst of these women is, t...

The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love lie deep in their graves; but, although the happ...

Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance o...

The boy was lying, fast asleep, on a rude bed upon the floor; so pale with anxiety, and sadness, and...

Why look'e, young gentleman," said Toby, "when a man keeps himself so very ex-clusive as I have done...

My heart is set, as firmly as ever heart of man was set on woman. I have no thought, no view, no hop...

Dickens writes that an event, "began to be forgotten, as most affairs are, when wonder, having no fr...

The mental agony I have suffered, during the last two days, wrings from me the avowal to you of a pa...

I can't go into a long explanation before company; but I couldn't help it, upon my honour."Upon your...

Sudden shifts and changes are no bad preparation for political life.

The girl's life had been squandered in the streets, and among the most noisome of the stews and dens...

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it cannot be the pride of a mother in her children, for t...

He executed his commission with great promptitude and dispatch, only calling at one public-house for...

Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt...

What a situation!' cried Miss Squeers; '...What is the reason that men fall in love with me, whether...

He has a very nice face and style, really," said Mrs. Kenwigs."He certainly has," added Miss Petowke...

I'm pretty well. So's the family, and so's the boys, except for a sort of rash as is a running throu...

Gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feeli...

Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.

There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant ...

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Go ye, who rest so placidly upon the sacred Bard who had been young, and when he strung his harp was...

Let us take heed how we laugh without reason, lest we cry with it.

When she spoke, Tom held his breath, so eagerly he listened; when she sang, he sat like one entrance...

My meaning is, that no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades.

[S]he stood for some moments gazing at the sisters, with affection beaming in one eye, and calculati...

Martin took the same course, thinking as he went, that perhaps the free and independent citizens, wh...

Aye, though he loved her from his soul with such a self denying love as woman seldom wins; he spoke ...

His high spiced wares were made to sell, and they sold; and his thousands of readers could as ration...

He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-br...

It was the shadow of Some one who had gone by long before: of Some one who had gone on far away quit...

[Credit is a system whereby] a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee...

A commission of haberdashers could alone have reported whatthe rest of her poor dress was made of, b...

One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind.

It was an instinctive testimony to Little Dorrit's worth and difference from all the rest, that the ...

What the mud had been doing with itself, or where it came from, who could say? But it seemed to coll...