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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Quotes

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Famous Charles Dickens Quotes

“'There may be some, perhaps - I don't know that there are - who abuse his kindness,' said Mr. Wickfield. 'Never be one of those, Trotwood, in anything. He is the least suspicious of mankind; and whether that's a merit, or whether it's a blemish, it deserves consideration in all dealings with the Doctor, great or small.”

KnowsMaySaidCharacterInterestingKindnessMankindDeserveDoctorsAbuseMeritConsiderationSuspiciousDealingsInteresting Characters
Book:David Copperfield
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“After tea, we discussed a variety of topics before the fire; and Mrs. Micawber was good enough to sing us (in a small, thin, flat voice, which I remembered to have considered, when I first knew her, the very table-beer of acoustics) the favourite ballads of "The Dashing White Sergeant", and "Little Tafflin".”

FirstsLittlesEnoughCharacterVoiceWhiteInterestingFireTablesVarietyTeaBeerRememberedFlatsGood EnoughFavouriteTopicsAcousticsBalladsInteresting CharactersSergeantsDashingMicawber
Book:David Copperfield (World Classics, Unabridged)
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“He was the meekest of his sex, the mildest of little men. He sidled in and out of a room, to take up the less space. He walked as softly as the Ghost in Hamlet, and more slowly. He carried his head on one side, partly in modest depreciation of himself, partly in modest propitiation of everybody else.”

MenLittlesCharacterSexSidesSpaceInterestingRoomsGhostModestLittle ManInteresting CharactersDepreciationPropitiation
Book:The Personal History of David Copperfield ... With Frontispiece by H. K. Browne
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“I found Uriah reading a great fat book, with such demonstrative attention, that his lank forefinger followed up every line as he read, and made clammy tracks along the page (or so I fully believed) like a snail.”

MadeBookCharacterReadingFoundLinesInterestingAttentionPagesTrackFatsInteresting CharactersSnail
Book: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].
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“What is natural in me, is natural in many other men, I infer, and so I am not afraid to write that I never had loved Steerforth better than when the ties that bound me to him were broken. In the keen distress of the discovery of his unworthiness, I thought more of all that was brilliant in him, I softened more towards all that was good in him, I did more justice to the qualities that might have made him a man of a noble nature and a great name, than ever I had done in the height of my devotion to him.”

MenWritingMadeDoneCharacterMightNamesNaturalJusticeInterestingQualityBrokenDiscoveryBoundsNobleBrilliantDevotionHeightTiesNot AfraidDistressInteresting Characters
Book:Four Novels: Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hard Times
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“All I would say is, that I can go abroad without your family coming forward to favour me, - in short, with a parting Shove of their cold shoulders; and that, upon the whole, I would rather leave England with such impetus as I possess, than derive any acceleration of it from that quarter.”

I CanWholeCharacterInterestingColdEnglandShouldersOur FamilyQuartersFavourPartingInteresting CharactersImpetusAccelerationCold Shoulder
Book:The Personal History of David Copperfield
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“"Madam," replied Mr. Micawber, "it is my intention to register such a vow on the virgin page of the future."”

CharacterInterestingPagesIntentionVirginsVowRegisterInteresting CharactersMicawber
Book: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].
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“The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thickset personage, with a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of hair, and eyes so small and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the usual size.”

MenCharacterEyeTogetherInterestingHe ManHairBrokenLowsMeetingsSizeNosesShockUsualForeheadsCoarseInteresting CharactersSquat
Book:A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens
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“Indeed the worthy housewife was of such a capricious nature, that she not only attained a higher pitch of genius than Macbeth, in respect of her ability to be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral in an instant, but would sometimes ring the changes backwards and forwards on all possible moods and flights in one short quarter of an hour; performing, as it were, a kind of triple bob major on the peal of instruments in the female belfry, with a skilfulness and rapidity of execution that astonished all who heard her.”

KindSometimesCharacterHoursAbilityInterestingWiseHeardGeniusHigherMajorsFemaleInstrumentsWorthyRingsMoodFlightPerformingInstantQuartersLoyalBobExecutionAmazedBackwardsBeing WiseHousewifeFuriousInteresting CharactersCapricious
Author:Charles Dickens
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“One thing about this face was very strange and startling. You could not look upon it in its most cheerful mood without feeling that it had some extraordinary capacity of expressing terror. It was not on the surface. It was in no one feature that it lingered. You could not take the eyes or mouth, or lines upon the cheek, and say, if this or that were otherwise, it would not be so. Yet there it always lurked-something for ever dimly seen, but ever there, and never absent for a moment.”

IfsLooksMomentsCharacterFeelingsEyeFacesLinesInterestingOne ThingStrangeMouthsCapacityExtraordinaryTerrorSurfaceMoodFeaturesLook UpCheeksCheerfulAbsentInteresting Characters
Book:Barnaby Rudge, And, Hard Times: With Ten Illustrations
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“Rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. Keep me always at it, and I'll keep you always at it, you keep somebody else always at it. There you are with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country.”

MenGivingCountryWholeCharacterInterestingDutyBedGive MeMealsBoltsInteresting Characters
Book: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].
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“If her eyes had no expression, it was probably because they had nothing to express. If she had few wrinkles, it was because her mind had never traced its name or any other inscription on her face.”

IfsMindCharacterEyeFacesNamesInterestingExpressionHer EyesWrinklesInteresting CharactersInscriptions
Book:Dickens Ultimate Christmas Collection: The Greatest Stories & Novels for Christmas Time: A Christmas Carol, Doctor Marigold, Oliver Twist, Tom Tiddler's Ground, The Holly-Tree and more (Illustrated): The Best Loved Christmas Classics in One Volume
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“In truth, no men on earth can cheer like Englishmen, who do so rally one another's blood and spirit when they cheer in earnest, that the stir is like the rush of their whole history, with all its standards waving at once, from Saxon Alfred's downwards.”

MenWholeCharacterEarthSpiritInterestingBloodStandardsCheerEarnestEnglishmenInteresting Characters
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
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“The haggard aspect of the little old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he.”

MenLittlesWholeCharacterHandsMightHouseChurchInterestingAspectCollectionsOld ManWornSpoilTombsDesertedInteresting CharactersHaggardOld Churches
Book:The Old Curiosity Shop
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“"Vell," said Mr. Weller, "Now I s'pose he'll want to call some witnesses to speak to his character, or p'raps to prove a alleybi. I've been a turnin' the bis'ness over in my mind, and he may make his-self easy, Sammy. I've got some friends as'll do either for him, but my adwice 'ud be this here-never mind the character, and stick to the alleybi. Nothing like a alleybi, Sammy, nothing."”

WantMindMaySaidSelfCharacterFunnySpeakEasyProveHumorousSticksRapWitness
Book:The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club
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“As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, "Also Georgiana Wife of the Above", I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly.”

MenFirstsLongIdeasCharacterMotherTurnsFatherBlackDarkSawsWifeHairShapesLettersPhotographConclusionOddFancySquaresTombstoneInscriptionsStoutBlack Hair
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
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“Sir," returned Mrs. Sparsit, " I cannot say that i have heard him precisely snore, and therefore must not make that statement. But on winter evenings, when he has fallen asleep at his table, I have heard him, what I should prefer to describe as partially choke. I have heard him on such occasions produce sounds of a nature similar to what may be heard in dutch clocks. Not," said Mrs. Sparsit, with a lofty sense of giving strict evidence, " That I would convey any imputation on his moral character. Far from it.”

GivingShouldMaySaidCharacterSoundMoralHeardProduceEvidenceTablesWinterStatementsEveningOccasionsClockFallenStrictChokeLoftyDutchMoral Character
Book:Hard Times
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“Let the tears which fell, and the broken words which were exchanged in the long close embrace between the orphans, be sacred. A father, sister, and mother, were gained, and lost, in that one moment. Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief arose so softened, and clothed in such sweet and tender recollections, that it became a solemn pleasure, and lost all character of pain.”

LongMomentsCharacterPainJoyMotherFatherLostPleasureGriefTearsSweetBrokenSacredEmbraceBitterCupsSolemnRecollectionOrphanSisters And MothersJoy And Grief
Book:Oliver Twist
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“what I want you to be - I don't mean physically but morally: you are very well physically - is a firm fellow, a fine firm fellow, with a will of your own, with resolution. with determination. with strength of character that is not to be influenced except on good reason by anybody, or by anything. That's what I want you to be. That's what your father, & your mother might both have been”

WantWellsMeanHas BeensReasonCharacterMightMotherFatherFineDeterminationFellowsFirmResolutionI Want YouStrength Of Character
Book:David Copperfield (Illustrated)
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“The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent master.He supposes all his dependents to be utterly bereft of individual characters, intentions or opinions, and is persuaded that he was born to supersede the necessity of their having any.If he were to make a discovery to the contrary, he would be simply stunned - would never recover himself, most likely, except to gasp and die.”

IfsCharacterWould BeDiesIndividualBornOpinionMastersDiscoveryIntentionContraryTyrannyExcellentRepresentativesStunnedBereft
Book:Bleak House
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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.”

MayPhilosophyCharacterFamilyWifeSocietyInfluenceAccidentsExpectedLoftySanctifyMicawber
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
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