Charles Dickens Quotes

Never imitate the eccentricities of genius, but toil after it in its truer flights. They are not so easy to follow, but they lead to higher regions.

I confess I have yet to learn that a lesson of the purest good may not be drawn from the vilest evil.

Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen.

It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

The universe, he observed, makes rather an indifferent parent, I am afraid.

It was a long and gloomy night that gathered on me, haunted by the ghosts of many hopes, of many dear remembrances, many errors, many unavailing sorrows and regrets.

The aim of talk should be like the aim of a flying arrow -- to hit the mark; but to this end there must be a mark to hit, that is, there must be a listener.

Remembrance, like a candle, burns brightest at Christmastime.

And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that [Christmas] has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

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

Death is a mighty, universal truth.

"Madam," replied Mr. Micawber, "it is my intention to register such a vow on the virgin page of the future."

Home is like the ship at sea, Sailing on eternally; Oft the anchor forth we cast, But can never make it fast.

When you drink of the water, don't forget the spring from which it flows.

God bless us every one! said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves as one, but every child was conducting itself like forty.

That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity's small change in general society.

I never had one hour's happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death.

Strong mental agitation and disturbance was no novelty to him, even before his late sufferings. It never is, to obstinate and sullen natures; for they struggle hard to be such.

Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.

He describes it as a large apartment, with a red brick floor and a capacious chimney; the ceiling garnished with hams, sides of bacon, and ropes of onions.

Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

…a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper --a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.

To close the eyes, and give a seemly comfort to the apparel of the dead, is poverty's holiest touch of nature.

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.

It is well for a man to respect his own vocation whatever it is and to think himself bound to uphold it and to claim for it the respect it deserves

Oliver Twist has asked for more!

What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No. Is it lovely, and gentle, and beautiful, and pleasant, and serene, and joyful? O yes!

I had considered how the things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished.

There is no substitute for thoroughgoing, ardent, and sincere earnestness.

Veels vithin veels, a prison in a prison.

Now, what I want is, Facts. . . . Facts alone are wanted in life.

The forces that affect our lives, the influences that mold and shape us, are often like whispers in a different room, teasingly indistinct, apprehended only with difficulty.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

He did each single thing as if he did nothing else.

Shall we speak of the inspiration of a poet or a priest, and not of the heart impelled by love and self-devotion to the lowliest work in the lowliest way of life?

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

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.

When I have heard him talking to Papa during the sittings for the picture, I have sat wondering whether it could be that he has no belief in anybody else, because he has no belief in himself.

You don't carry in your countenance a letter of recommendation.

Champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life.

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?

My guiding star always is, Get hold of portable property.

It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.

We lawyers are always curious, always inquisitive, always picking up odds and ends for our patchwork minds, since there is no knowing when and where they may fit into some corner.

I never see any difference in boys. I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys and beef-faced boys.

The privileges of the side-table included the small prerogatives of sitting next to the toast, and taking two cups of tea to other people's one.

Around and around the house the leaves fall thick, but never fast, for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is sombre and slow.

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.