Charles Dickens Quotes - Page 24

• There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.

  Charles Dickens

  Passion, Hunting, Breasts

  Oliver Twist ch. 10 (1838)

  22 Copy quote

• Why should I disguise what you know so well, but what the crowd never dream of? We companies are all birds of prey; mere birds of prey. The only question is, whether in serving our own turn, we can serve yours too; whether in double-lining our own nest, we can put a single living into yours.

  Charles Dickens

  Dream, Animal, Bird

  Charles Dickens (1867). “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.277

  4 Copy quote

• Judiciously show a cat milk, if you wish her to thirst for it. Judiciously show a dog his natural prey, if you wish him to bring it down one day.

  Charles Dickens

  Dog, Cat, Animal

  Charles Dickens (1859). “A Tale of Two Cities”, p.276

  4 Copy quote

• She's the sort of woman now,' said Mould, . . . 'one would almost feel disposed to bury for nothing: and do it neatly, too!

  Charles Dickens

  Women, Mould, Said

  Charles Dickens (1844). “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.307, Chapman and Hall

  4 Copy quote

• At last, in the dead of the night, when the street was very still indeed, Little Dorrit laid the heavy head upon her bosom, and soothed her to sleep. And thus she sat at the gate, as it were alone; looking up at the stars, and seeing the clouds pass over them in their wild flight-which was the dance at Little Dorrit's party.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Stars, Party

  CHARLES DICKENS (1867). “LITTLE DORRIT”, p.110

  4 Copy quote

• Day was breaking at Plashwater Weir Mill Lock. Stars were yet visible, but there was dull light in the east that was not the light of night. The moon had gone down, and a mist crept along the banks of the river, seen through which the trees were the ghosts of trees, and the water was the ghost of water. This earth looked spectral, and so did the pale stars: while the cold eastern glare, expressionless as to heat or colour, with the eye of the firmament quenched, might have been likened to the stare of the dead.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Stars, Eye

  Charles Dickens (1873). “A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens”, p.317

  4 Copy quote

• You should keep dogs-fine animals-sagacious.

  Charles Dickens

  Dog, Animal, Should

  Charles Dickens (1837). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.9

  4 Copy quote

• I don't like that sort of school... where the bright childish imagination is utterly discouraged... where I have never seen among the pupils, whether boys or girls, anything but little parrots and small calculating machines.

  Charles Dickens

  Girl, Creativity, School

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.14216, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• The meagre lighthouse all in white, haunting the seaboard, as if it were the ghost of an edifice that had once had colour and rotundity, dripped melancholy tears after its late buffeting by the waves.

  Charles Dickens

  White, Tears, Haunting

  CHARLES DICKENS (1867). “LITTLE DORRIT”, p.412

  15 Copy quote

• Blackened skeleton arms of wood by the wayside pointed upward to the convent, as if the ghosts of former travellers, overwhelmed by the snow, haunted the scene of their distress. Icicle-hung caves and cellars built for refuges from sudden storms, were like so many whispers of the perils of the place; never-resting wreaths and mazes of mist wandered about, hunted by a moaning wind; and snow, the besetting danger of the mountain, against which all its defences were taken, drifted sharply down.

  Charles Dickens

  Taken, Skeletons, Wind

  Charles Dickens (2009). “The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit”, p.448, Cosimo, Inc.

  13 Copy quote

• [I]t seemed as if the streets were absorbed by the sky, and the night were all in the air.

  Charles Dickens

  Night, Air, Sky

  Charles Dickens (1865). “Our Mutual Friend”, p.119

  5 Copy quote

• There lives at least one being who can never change-one being who would be content to devote his whole existence to your happiness-who lives but in your eyes-who breathes but in your smiles-who bears the heavy burden of life itself only for you.

  Charles Dickens

  Love, Eye, Burdens Of Life

  Charles Dickens (1870). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.61

  4 Copy quote

• "O, Mrs. Clennam, Mrs. Clennam," said Little Dorrit, "angry feelings and unforgiving deeds are no comfort and no guide to you and me."

  Charles Dickens

  Words Of Wisdom, Feelings, Comfort

  CHARLES DICKENS (1867). “LITTLE DORRIT”, p.501

  4 Copy quote

• When we have done our very, very best, papa, and that is not enough, then I think the right time must have come for asking help of others.

  Charles Dickens

  Thinking, Words Of Wisdom, Papa

  Charles Dickens, Peter Preston (1998). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories”, p.388, Wordsworth Editions

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• There is nothing truer than physiognomy, taken in connection with manner.

  Charles Dickens

  Taken, Connections, Physiognomy

  Charles Dickens (1861). “The Lamplighter's Story; Hunted Down; the Detective Police; and Other Nouvellettes”, p.21

  59 Copy quote

• the sight of me is good for sore eyes

  Charles Dickens

  Eye, Sight, Sore Eyes

  Charles Dickens (2012). “David Copperfield”, p.347, Courier Corporation

  52 Copy quote

• ... The sun does not shine upon this fair earth to meet frowning eyes, depend upon it.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Eye, Shining

  Charles Dickens (1843). “The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”, p.71

  4 Copy quote

• Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art.

  Charles Dickens

  Art, Children, Natural

  6 Copy quote

• I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!

  Charles Dickens

  New Year, School, Angel

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Dickens' Christmas Spirits: A Christmas Carol and Other Tales”, p.91, Courier Corporation

  11 Copy quote

• Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world.

  Charles Dickens

  Sports, Dream, Night

  Charles Dickens (1867). “Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].”, p.91

  6 Copy quote

• Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit, has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes, without coming to total disagreement as to all the premises.

  Charles Dickens

  Party, Mean, Men

  Bleak House ch. 1 (1853)

  5 Copy quote

• Circumstances may accumulate so strongly even against an innocent man, that directed, sharpened, and pointed, they may slay him.

  Charles Dickens

  Men, Innocent Man, Words Of Wisdom

  CHARLES DICKENS (1871). “THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK, AND SKETCHES BY "BOZ".”, p.122

  7 Copy quote

• I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of mothers shall be visited on their children, as well as the sins of their fathers.

  Charles Dickens

  Mother, Children, Father

  7 Copy quote

• Are you thankful for not being young?' 'Yes, sir. If I was young, it would all have to be gone through again, and the end would be a weary way off, don't you see?

  Charles Dickens

  Would Be, Gone, Way

  Charles Dickens (1872). “Our Mutual Friend”

  7 Copy quote

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