The Charles Dickens Page
Charles Dickens Quotes
Some of my favorite Charles Dickens quotes
Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression 
of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life (Barnaby Rudge, 1841, p. 18).
Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess! (Dombey and Son, 1848, p. 817)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, p. 1).
Great men are seldom over scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 6).
It is a far, far, better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far, better rest that I go to, than I have ever known (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, p. 358).
It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing so irresistibly contagious as laughter (A Christmas Carol - Christmas Books, 1843, p. 51).
You do not know...what men have done to win it (gold), and how they have found, too late, that it glitters brightest at a distance, and turns quite dim and dull when handled (Barnaby Rudge, 1841, p. 342).
Ven you're a married man, Samivel, you'll understand a good many things as you don't understand now; but vether it's worthwhile, goin' through so much, to learn so little, as the charity-boy said ven he got to the end of the alphabet, is a matter o' taste (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 372-373).
I love these little people (children); and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us (The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841, p. 4).
Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it cannot be the pride of a mother in her children, for that is a compound of two cardinal virtues--faith and hope (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 566).
It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself (A Christmas Carol - Christmas Books, 1843, p. 53).
The children of the very poor are not brought up, but dragged up (Bleak House, 1853, p. 68).
Sleep, Heaven’s gift to all its creatures (Barnaby Rudge, 1841, p. 138).
People need to rise early, to see the sun in all his splendour, for his brightness seldom lasts the day through. The morning of day and the morning of life are but too much alike (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 57-58).
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery (David Copperfield, 1850, p. 175).
Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844, p. 66).
There's nothing more regular in its coming round than dinner-time, and nothing less regular in its coming round than dinner (The Chimes - Christmas Books, 1844, p. 87).
The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 28).
There are times when ignorance is bliss indeed (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 85).
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else (Our Mutual Friend, 1865, p. 520).
If there be any who have never known the blank that follows death – the weary void – the sense of desolation that will come upon the strongest minds, when something familiar and beloved is missed at every turn – the connexion between inanimate and senseless things, and the object of recollection, when every household god becomes a monument and every room a grave--if there be any who have not known this, and proved it by their own experience, they can never faintly guess how, for many days, the old man pined and moped away the time, and wandered here and there as seeking something, and had no comfort (The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841, p. 545).
We need be careful how we deal with those about us, when every death carries to some small circle of survivors, thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done--of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired! There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this, in time (Oliver Twist, 1839, p. 247).
I wants to make your flesh creep (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 102).
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart (Hard Times, 1854, p. 223).
A loving heart is better and stronger than wisdom (David Copperfield, 1850, p. 132).
I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape (Great Expectations, 1861, p. 460).
All good things perverted to evil purposes, are worse than those which are naturally bad (Barnaby Rudge, 1841, p. 394).
We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous circle. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest, the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstance connected with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but yesterday. Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 374-375)
Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844, p. 445).
An elasticity of spirit is happily the lot of young persons, or the world would never be stocked with old ones (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 270).
It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations (Bleak House, 1853, p. 389).
The legal profession, where writs are issued, judgments signed, declarations filed, and numerous other ingenious little machines put in motion for the torture and torment of His Majesty’s liege subjects, and the comfort and emolument of the practitioners of the law (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 418).
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, p. 10).
People mutht be amuthed...they can't be alwayth a working, nor yet they can't be alwayth a learning (Hard Times, 1854, p. 41).
Women don’t always tell the truth about their age (The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841, p. 404).
There is something about a roused woman: especially if she add to all her other strong passions, the fierce impulses of recklessness and despair; which few men like to provoke (Oliver Twist, 1839, p. 115).
When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 428).
Painters always make ladies out prettier than they are, or they wouldn't get any custom...The man that invented the machine for taking likenesses might have known that would never succeed; it's a deal too honest (Oliver Twist, 1839, p. 79).
What better time for driving, riding, walking, moving through the air by any means, than a fresh, frosty morning, when hope runs cheerily through the veins with the brisk blood, and tingles in the frame from head to foot! (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844, p. 64)
The office is one thing, and private life is another (Great Expectations, 1861, p. 197).
Sam...did what a great many people do when they are uncertain about the writer of a note,–looked at the seal, and then at the front, and then at the back, and then at the sides, and then at the superscription; and, as a last resource, thought perhaps he might as well look at the inside, and try to find out from that (The Pickwick Papers, 1837, p. 517).
There is too much untruth among all denominations of men (Our Mutual Friend, 1865, p. 276).
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts (Great Expectations, 1861, p. 151).
Things that are changed or gone will come back as they used to be, thank God! in sleep (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 42).
To remember happiness which cannot be restored, is pain, but of a softened kind (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 65).
Time will wear wings indeed! (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844, p. 241)
The hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last (Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, p. 275).
[It is] quite impossible that any difference of opinion can take place among women without every woman who is within hearing taking active part in it (Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844, p. 57).
Evil often stops short at itself and dies with the doer of it; but Good, never (Our Mutual Friend, 1865, p. 101).
Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but poverty is a greater; and until you can cure it, or persuade a half-famished wretch not to seek relief in the temporary oblivion of his own misery, with the pittance which, divided among his family, would just furnish a morsel of bread for each, gin-shops will increase in number and splendour (Gin Shops - Sketches by Boz, 1835, p. 187).
Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Fill your glass again, with a merry face and contented heart. Our life on it, but your Christmas shall be merry, and your new year a happy one! (A Christmas Dinner - Sketches by Boz, 1835, p. 220)
There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas (A Christmas Dinner - Sketches by Boz, 1835, p. 221).
The word 'dear' among girls is frequently synonymous with 'wretch' (The Steam Excursion - Sketches by Boz, 1834, p. 392).
MATRIMONY is proverbially a serious undertaking. Like an overweening predilection for brandy-and-water, it is a misfortune into which a man easily falls, and from which he finds it remarkably difficult to extricate himself (A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle - Sketches by Boz, 1835, p. 431).
It is a dreadful thing to wait and watch for the approach of death; to know that hope is gone, and recovery impossible; and to sit and count the dreary hours through long, long, nights – such nights as only watchers by the bed of sickness know (The Drunkard's Death - Sketches by Boz, 1836, p. 485).
