Charles Dickens Quotes - Page 26

• You should know," said Estella. "I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me.

  Charles Dickens

  Book, Blame, Praise

  Charles Dickens (1861). “Great Expectations”, p.88

  7 Copy quote

• That, they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could endure the notion of their children laying their heads upon their pillows; in short, that there never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the prisoner's head was taken off.

  Charles Dickens

  Children, Taken, Ideas

  "All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal".

  4 Copy quote

• What connexion can there be, between the place in Lincolnshire, the house in town, the Mercury in powder, and the whereabout of Jo the outlaw with the broom, who had that distant ray of light upon him when he swept the churchyard-step? What connexion can there have been between many people in the innumerable histories of this world, who, from opposite sides of great gulfs, have, nevertheless, been very curiously brought together!

  Charles Dickens

  Light, Opposites, People

  Charles Dickens (1853). “Bleak House”, p.156

  4 Copy quote

• All through it, I have known myself to be quite undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire- a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away.

  Charles Dickens

  Fire, Wish, Weakness

  Charles Dickens (2005). “A Tale of Two Cities - Literary Touchstone Edition”, p.143, Prestwick House Inc

  6 Copy quote

• If they would rather die, . . . they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

  Charles Dickens

  Population, Scrooge, Christmas Carol

  Charles Dickens (1858). “A Christmas Carol”, p.9

  16 Copy quote

• If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to do it through going crooked. So don't tell no more on 'em, Pip, and live well and die happy.

  Charles Dickens

  Uncommon, Live Well, Wells

  "Tale of Two Cities".

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.

  Charles Dickens

  Hands, Clothes, Care

  Charles Dickens (2007). “A Tale of Two Cities”, p.21, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

• It is a long time,' repeated his wife; 'and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.' 'It does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning,' said Defarge. 'How long,' demanded madame, composedly, 'does it take to make and store the lightning? Tell me?

  Charles Dickens

  Men, Long, Wife

  Charles Dickens (2010). “A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations (Oprah's Book Club): Two Novels”, p.150, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• You can't make a head and brains out of a brass knob with nothing in it. You couldn't do it when your uncle George was living much less when he's dead.

  Charles Dickens

  Uncles, Brain, Brass

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.6307, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• You hear, Eugene?' said Lightwood over his shoulder. 'You are deeply interested in lime.' 'Without lime,' returned that unmoved barrister at law, 'my existence would be unilluminated by a ray of hope.

  Charles Dickens

  Law, Rays, Would Be

  Charles Dickens (1884). “Our Mutual Friend”, p.72

  6 Copy quote

• Be guided, only by the healer of the sick, the raiser of the dead, the friend of all who were afflicted and forlorn, the patient Master who shed tears of compassion for our infirmities. We cannot but be right if we put all the rest away, and do everything in remembrance of Him. There is no vengeance and no infliction of suffering in His life, I am sure. There can be no confusion in following Him, and seeking for no other footsteps, I am certain!

  Charles Dickens

  Compassion, Sick, Confusion

  Charles Dickens (2009). “The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit”, p.825, Cosimo, Inc.

  12 Copy quote

• I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for.

  Charles Dickens

  Lying, Mean, Ambition

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.5760, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression, than I should be annoyed by a man's opinion of a picture of mine, who had no eye for pictures; or of a piece of music of mine, who had no ear for music.

  Charles Dickens

  Eye, Men, Thinking

  Charles Dickens (2005). “A Tale of Two Cities - Literary Touchstone Edition”, p.133, Prestwick House Inc

  4 Copy quote

• There are very few moments in a man's existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.

  Charles Dickens

  Men, Littles, Hats

  1836-7 Pickwick Papers, ch.4.

  4 Copy quote

• Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused!

  Charles Dickens

  Christian, Regret, Mean

  Charles Dickens (1997). “Best Ghost Stories”, p.71, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

• Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?" "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? what reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.

  Charles Dickens

  Uncles, Mean, Merry Christmas

  Charles Dickens (2007). “SAT Words from Literature - A Christmas Carol”, p.11, Prestwick House Inc

  5 Copy quote

• Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die?

  Charles Dickens

  Heart, Men, Wicked

  Charles Dickens (1858). “A Christmas Carol”, p.58

  6 Copy quote

• I only know that it was, and ceased to be; and that I have written, and there I leave it.

  Charles Dickens

  Knows, Written

  Charles Dickens (1992). “David Copperfield”, p.187, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

• Do you want to be a gentleman, to spite her or to gain her over? Because, if it is to spite her, I should think - but you know best - that might be better and more independently done by caring nothing for her words. And if it is to gain her over, I should think - but you know best - she was not worth gaining over.

  Charles Dickens

  Caring, Thinking, Gentleman

  Charles Dickens (1861). “Great Expectations”, p.48

  4 Copy quote

• And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I never was happy with her, but always miserable.

  Charles Dickens

  Thinking, Knowing, House

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.301

  4 Copy quote

• My dear young lady, crime, like death, is not confined to the old and withered alone. The youngest and fairest are too often its chosen victims.

  Charles Dickens

  Crime, Victim, Young

  Charles Dickens (1839). “Oliver Twist”, p.116

  7 Copy quote

• Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

  Charles Dickens

  Doors, Hands, Names

  Charles Dickens (2015). “A Christmas Carol”, p.6, Sheba Blake Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• and it was not until I began to think, that I began fully to know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces.

  Charles Dickens

  Thinking, Gone, Pieces

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.355

  4 Copy quote

• I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.

  Charles Dickens

  Husband, Lying, Heart

  Charles Dickens (2016). “A Tale of Two Cities”, p.348, Xist Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• When the time comes, let loose a tiger and a devil; but wait for the time with the tiger and the devil chained -not shown- yet always ready.

  Charles Dickens

  Waiting, Devil, Ready

  6 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Mark Twain

William Shakespeare

Jane Austen

Edgar Allan Poe

Leo Tolstoy

Oscar Wilde

Charlotte Bronte

Ernest Hemingway