Charles Dickens Quotes About Expectations

• Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.

  Charles Dickens

  Wisdom, Expectations, Looks

  Great Expectations ch. 40 (1861)

• Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

  Charles Dickens

  Sorry, Rain, Heart

  Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.132, The Planet

• I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.

  Charles Dickens

  Suffering Pain, Broken, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.525

• I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

  Charles Dickens

  Romantic Love, Expectations, Promise

  1860-1 Great Expectations, ch.29.

• We need never be ashamed of our tears.

  Charles Dickens

  Sad, Break Up, Breakup

  Charles Dickens (2016). “Great Expectations”, Xist Publishing

• It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

  Charles Dickens

  Summer, Nature, Spring

  Charles Dickens (2015). “Great Expectations: Classic English Literature”, p.394, 谷月社

• Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

  Charles Dickens

  Life, Saying Goodbye, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (2012). “A Great Expectations in Plain and Simple English (Includes Study Guide, Complete Unabridged Book, Historical Context, Biography”, p.568, BookCaps Study Guides

• In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

  Charles Dickens

  Children, Parenting, Expectations

  Great Expectations ch. 8 (1861)

• . . . in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that, her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker . . .

  Charles Dickens

  Healing, Order, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.7428, Delphi Classics

• Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

  Charles Dickens

  Flower, Memorable, Thinking

  Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.62, The Planet

• I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.

  Charles Dickens

  Taken, Two, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.255, The Planet

• Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?

  Charles Dickens

  Expectations, Ugly, Helping

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.7354, Delphi Classics

• It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.

  Charles Dickens

  Home, Expectations, Words Of Wisdom

  'Great Expectations' (1861) ch. 14

• We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.

  Charles Dickens

  Expectations, Too Late, World

  Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.132, The Planet

• Probably every new and eagerly expected garment ever put on since clothes came in, fell a trifle short of the wearer's expectation.

  Charles Dickens

  Fashion, Clothes, Expectations

  1860-1 Great Expectations, ch.19.

• Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Communication, Expectations

  Great Expectations ch. 18 (1861)

• ... Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Wine

  Charles Dickens (1861). “Great Expectations”, p.65

• Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Medicine

  Charles Dickens (1861). “Great Expectations”, p.18

• In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Expectations, Morality

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.61

• So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.

  Charles Dickens

  People, Expectations, Words Of Wisdom

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.7278, Delphi Classics

• You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since-on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with.

  Charles Dickens

  Heart, Boys, Clouds

  Great Expectations ch. 44 (1861)

• I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

  Charles Dickens

  Morning, Light, Long Ago

  Great Expectations ch. 59 (1862 ed.)

• No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.

  Charles Dickens

  Expectations, Woods, Grain

  Charles Dickens (1861). “Great Expectations”, p.248

• We were equals afterwards, as we had been before; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking at Joe and thinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart.

  Charles Dickens

  Heart, Thinking, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.70

• it is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.

  Charles Dickens

  Heart, Men, Expectations

  Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.148, The Planet

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