Charles Dickens Quotes - Page 31

• 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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• You fear the world too much,' she answered gently. 'All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?

  Charles Dickens

  Fall, Passion, World

  Charles Dickens (1950). “A Christmas carol in prose, being a ghost story of Christmas: With original art and narration by Jon Langford”, p.31, Google Play Books

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• Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Hero, Pages

  David Copperfield ch. 1 (1850)

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• The secret was such an old one now, had so grown into me and become a part of myself, that I could not tear it away.

  Charles Dickens

  Great Expectations, Secret, Tears

  Charles Dickens (1873). “Tale of Two Cities”, p.313

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• The jovial party broke up next morning. Breakings-up are capital things in our school-days, but in after life they are painful enough. Death, self-interest, and fortune's changes, are every day breaking up many a happy group, and scattering them far and wide; and the boys and girls never come back again.

  Charles Dickens

  Girl, Morning, Party

  Charles Dickens (2016). “The Pickwick Papers: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.344, Pan Macmillan

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• Let us leave our old friend in one of those moments of unmixed happiness which, if we seek them, there are ever some, to cheer our transitory existence here. There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

  Charles Dickens

  Cheer, Dark, Light

  Charles Dickens (1838). “The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.607

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• His gaze wandered from the windows to the stars, as if he would have read in them something that was hidden from him. Many of us would, if we could; but none of us so much as know our letters in the stars yet - or seem likely to do it, in this state of existence - and few languages can be read until their alphabets are mastered.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Stars, Letters

  Charles Dickens (1871). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Pieces”, p.114

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• Then idiots talk....of Energy. If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy. It is such a conventional superstition, such parrot gabble! What the deuce!....But show me a good opportunity, show me something really worth being energetic about, and I'll show you energy.

  Charles Dickens

  Opportunity, Energy, Deuces

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• It is one of those problems of human nature, which may be noted down, but not solved; - although Ralph felt no remorse at that moment for his conduct towards the innocent, true-hearted girl; although his libertine clients had done precisely what he had expected, precisely what he most wished, and precisely what would tend most to his advantage, still he hated them for doing it, from the very bottom of his soul.

  Charles Dickens

  Girl, Character, Interesting

  Charles Dickens (1854). “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ... With a Frontispiece from a Painting by T. Webster”, p.223

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• No one has the least regard for the man; with them all, he has been an object of avoidance, suspicion, and aversion; but the spark of life within him is curiously separable from himself now, and they have a deep interest in it, probably because it IS life, and they are living and must die.

  Charles Dickens

  Men, Words Of Wisdom, Aversion

  Charles Dickens (2006). “Our Mutual Friend: Easyread Edition”, p.243, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• And what an example of the power of dress young Oliver Twist was! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar;—it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have fixed his station in society. But now he was enveloped in the old calico robes, that had grown yellow in the same service; he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once—a parish child—the orphan of a workhouse—the humble, half-starved drudge—to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none.

  Charles Dickens

  Children, Humble, Yellow

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• For who can wonder that man should feel a vague belief in tales of disembodied spirits wandering through those places which they once dearly affected, when he himself, scarcely less separated from his old world than they, is for ever lingering upon past emotions and bygone times, and hovering, the ghost of his former self, about the places and people that warmed his heart of old?

  Charles Dickens

  Heart, Past, Men

  Charles Dickens, Peter Preston (1998). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories”, p.13, Wordsworth Editions

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• Its matter was not new to me, but was presented in a new aspect. It shook me in my habit - the habit of nine-tenths of the world - of believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it.

  Charles Dickens

  Believe, Words Of Wisdom, World

  Charles Dickens, Hablot Knight Browne (1848). “Dombey and Son”, p.530

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• Hallo! A great deal of steam! the pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that. That was the pudding.

  Charles Dickens

  Food, Doors, Smell

  Charles Dickens (2011). “A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories”, p.54, Penguin

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• What are the odds so long as the fire of the soul is kindled at the taper of conviviality, and the wing of friendship never molts a feather?

  Charles Dickens

  Friendship, Fire, Odds

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• "What is your best, your very best, ale a glass?" "Two pence halfpenny," says the landlord, "is the price of the Genuine Stunning Ale." "Then," says I, producing the money, "just draw me a glass of the Genuine Stunning, if you please, with a good head on it."

  Charles Dickens

  Beer, Glasses, Two

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• Equity sends questions to Law. Law sends questions back to equity; Law finds it can't do this, equity finds it can't do that; neither can do anything, without this solicitor instructing and this counsel appearing for A, and that solicitor instructing & that counsel appearing for B.

  Charles Dickens

  Law, Equity, Solicitors

  Charles Dickens (1853). “Bleak House”, p.67

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• The wide stare stared itself out for one while; the Sun went down in a red, green, golden glory; the stars came out in the heavens, and the fire-flies mimicked them in the lower air, as men may feebly imitate the goodness of a better order of beings; the long dusty roads and the interminable plains were in repose-and so deep a hush was on the sea, that it scarcely whispered of the time when it shall give up its dead.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Stars, Giving Up

  CHARLES DICKENS (1867). “LITTLE DORRIT”, p.10

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• When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on the horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss, were like glimpses of another shore with towers and buildings.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Sight, Sea

  Charles Dickens (1850). “Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observations of David Copperfield the Younger”, p.253

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• And the voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence, in their ceaseless murmuring, of love - of love, eternal and illimitable, not bounded by the confines of this world, or by the end of time, but ranging still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible country far away!

  Charles Dickens

  Love, Country, Sea

  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.502

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• "Ay," said the Captain, reverentially; "it's a almighty element. There's wonders in the deep, my pretty. Think on it when the winds is roaring and the waves is rowling. Think on it when the stormy nights is so pitch dark," said the Captain, solemnly holding up his hook, "as you can't see your hand afore you, excepting when the wiwid lightning reweals the same; and when you drive, drive, drive through the storm and dark, as if you was a driving, head on, to the world without end."

  Charles Dickens

  Dark, Thinking, Night

  Charles Dickens (1872). “The Works of Charles Dickens”, p.280

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• It was a murky confusion — here and there blotted with a color like the color of the smoke from damp fuel — of flying clouds tossed up into most remarkable heaps, suggesting greater heights in the clouds than there were depths below them to the bottom of the deepest hollows in the earth, through which the wild moon seemed to plunge headlong, as if, in a dread disturbance of the laws of nature, she had lost her way and were frightened.

  Charles Dickens

  Nature, Moon, Clouds

  Charles Dickens (1850). “The Personal History of David Copperfield0: In Three Volumes”, p.265

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• The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy. The smoke hung sluggishly above the chimney-tops as if it lacked the courage to rise, and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour.

  Charles Dickens

  Rain, Dark, Air

  Charles Dickens (1838). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.347

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• The heavy rain beat down the tender branches of vine and jessamine, and trampled on them in its fury; and when the lightning gleamed, it showed the tearful leaves shivering and cowering together at the window, and tapping at it urgently, as if beseeching to be sheltered from the dismal night.

  Charles Dickens

  Rain, Night, Weather

  Charles Dickens (1867). “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.409

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• Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances... in short, by the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.

  Charles Dickens

  Family, Philosophy, Character

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.4671, Delphi Classics

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