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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Quotes

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Famous Charles Dickens Quotes

“There either is or is not, that’s the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it’s red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. I’m not going to tell you the story the way it happened. I’m going to tell it the way I remember it.”

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Author:Charles Dickens
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“Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her?" It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The child, who was nearest to him, told them afterwards, and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady, that she heard him say, "A life you love.”

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Book:a tale of two cities
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“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.”

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Author:Charles Dickens
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“When they took a young man into Tellson's London house, they hid him somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him. Then only was he permitted to be seen, spectacularly poring over large books, and casting his breeches and gaiters into the general weight of the establishment.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
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“We need be careful how we deal with those about us, when every death carries to some small circle of survivors, thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done- of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired! There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this, in time.”

IfsNeedsLittlesHas BeensDoneMightWould BeRememberDealsForgottenCarefulCirclesTortureCarrieSurvivorBe CarefulRemorseMight Have Been
Book:OLIVER TWIST (Illustrated Edition): Including
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“Mr Lorry asks the witness questions: Ever been kicked? Might have been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked down stairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick at the top of a staircase, and fell down stairs of his own accord.”

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Book:A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations (Oprah's Book Club): Two Novels
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“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”

HappinessWealthResultsMoneyBusinessOughtSixTwentiesMiseryRichesIncomeMaking MoneyPoundsSaving MoneyAnnualsNineteenExpendituresFunny MoneyFrugalityRich MoneyInspirational MoneyMoney HappinessBest MoneyMoney And HappinessInspirational Money MakingCan Money Buy HappinessSmart Money
Author:Charles Dickens
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“There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”

IfsKnowsEarthRememberSpiritPassionNamesStrangePrideHatredClaimsLaysIllDeedsEnvySelfishnessBigotryDoingsCarolsIll WillZealotChristmas Carol
Book:Christmas Books
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“But tears were not the things to find their way to Mr. Bumble’s soul; his heart was waterproof. Like washable beaver hats that improve with rain, his nerves were rendered stouter and more vigorous, by showers of tears, which, being tokens of weakness, and so far tacit admissions of his own power, pleased and exalted him.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
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“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

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Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books
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“It can't be supposed," said Joe. "Tho' I'm oncommon fond of reading, too." Are you, Joe?" Oncommon. Give me," said Joe, "a good book, or a good newspaper, and sit me down afore a good fire, and I ask no better. Lord!" he continued, after rubbing his knees a little, "when you do come to a J and a O, and says you, 'Here, at last, is a J-O, Joe,' how interesting reading is!”

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Book:Great Expectations (Illustrated)
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“He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much happiness.”

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Author:Charles Dickens
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“Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don't mean to say that, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail.”

MindMeanHas BeensCountryDoneHandsMightMy OwnPiecesRegardTradeRepeatsPermitAncestorNailsMight Have BeenSimileCoffinsMarley
Book:A Christmas Carol
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