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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Quotes

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Famous Charles Dickens Quotes

“There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.”

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Book:The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby
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“I don't remember forms or faces now, but I know the girl was beautiful. I know she was; for in the bright moonlight nights, when I start from my sleep, and all is quiet about me, I see, standing still and motionless in one corner of this cell, a slight and wasted figure with long black hair, which streaming down her back, stirs with no earthly wind, and eyes that fix their gaze on me, and never wink or close.”

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Book:The Pickwick Papers
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“He wore a sprinkling of powder upon his head, as if to make himself look benevolent; but if that were his purpose, he would perhaps have done better to powder his countenance also, for there was something in its very wrinkles, and in his cold restless eye, which seemed to tell of cunning that would announce itself in spite of him.”

IfsLooksDoneCharacterEyePurposeInterestingColdSpiteRestlessCunningWrinklesBenevolentCountenancePowderInteresting Characters
Book:The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ... With a Frontispiece from a Painting by T. Webster
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“... Arthur Gride, whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties, and were blind to the spirit which reigned within, evinced - a fantastic kind of warmth certainly, but not exactly that kind of warmth of feeling which the contemplation of virtue usually inspires.”

KindCharacterFeelingsEyeSpiritInterestingVirtueInspireBlindFantasticContemplationWarmthArthurInteresting CharactersOutward Beauty
Book:The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ... With a Frontispiece from a Painting by T. Webster
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“"Then idiots talk," said Eugene, leaning back, folding his arms, smoking with his eyes shut, and speaking slightly through his nose, "of Energy. If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy."”

IfsSaidCharacterEyeEnergyInterestingArmsLettersIdiotNosesHis EyesSmokingDictionaryInteresting CharactersFoldingLeaning Back
Book:The Works of Charles Dickens: Our mutual friend
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“There is something indefinably keen and wan about her anatomy, and she has a watchful way of looking out of the corners of her eyes without turning her head which could be pleasantly dispensed with, especially when she is in an ill humour and near knives. Through all the good taste of her dress and little adornments, these objections so express themselves that she seems to go about like a very neat she-wolf imperfectly tamed.”

WayLittlesCharacterSeemsEyeInterestingHumourTasteDressesIllCornersKnivesHer EyesNeatObjectionsAnatomyGood TasteInteresting CharactersTamedAdornment
Book:Bleak house. [20 numbers in 19 monthly pts., orig. wrappers.].
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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.”

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Book:A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of 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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“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.”

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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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“The nephew revenges himself for this, by holding his breath and terrifying his kinswoman with the dread belief that he has made up his mind to burst. Regardless of whispers and shakes, he swells and becomes discoloured, and yet again swells and becomes discoloured, until the aunt can bear it no longer, but leads him out, with no visible neck, and with his eyes going before him like a prawn's.”

MindMadeEyeFunnyBeliefBearsHumorousBreathsRevengeHis EyesVisibleNecksShakesDreadAuntNephewPrawns
Book:Novels
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“... Waiter! raw beef-steak for the gentleman's eye,-nothing like raw beef-steak for a bruise, sir; cold lamp-post very good, but lamp-post inconvenient-damned odd standing in the open street half-an-hour, with your eye against a lamp.”

EyeFunnyHoursHalfStreetsColdHumorousStandingVery GoodPostsOddGentlemanLampsBeefSteakInconvenientBruisesWaiter
Book:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Volume 1 (of 2) (Illustrations)
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“Pale and pinched-up faces hovered about the windows where was tempting food; hungry eyes wandered over the profusion guarded by one thin sheet of brittle glass--an iron wall to them; half-naked shivering figures stopped to gaze at Chinese shawls and golden stuffs of India.”

EyeFacesStuffHalfFiguresWallWindowIndiaGlassesHungryNakedGoldenChineseIronPaleSheetsGuardedTemptingHungry Eyes
Book:The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby
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“It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither.”

EyePurposeDarkHeavyLondonInvisibleVisibleDividedFogLungsChokeIrritatedSpectreWheezing
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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“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. Some men, like bats or owls, have better eyes for the darkness than for the light. We, who have no such optical powers, are better pleased to take our last parting look at the visionary companions of many solitary hours, when the brief sunshine of the world is blazing full upon them.”

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Book:The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club
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“She forgot to be shy at the moment, in honestly warning him away from the sunken wreck he had a dream of raising; and looked at him with eyes which assuredly, in association with her patient face, her fragile figure, her spare dress, and the wind and rain, did not turn him from his purpose of helping her.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (in 30 Volumes, Illustrated): Little Dorrit
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“Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance of external objects. Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision.”

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Book:Oliver Twist
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“Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world.”

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Book:Oliver Twist
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“The two stand in the fast-thinning throng of victims, but they speak as if they were alone. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to hand, heart to heart, these two children of the Universal Mother, else so wide apart and differing, have come together on the dark highway, to repair home together and to rest in her bosom.”

IfsHeartChildrenTwoHomeHandsEyeTogetherMotherSpeakVoiceDarkUniversalVictimWideHighwaysBosomsHeart To Heart
Book:Four Novels: Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hard Times
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“If I may ride with you, Citizen Evremonde, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more courage." As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips. "Are you dying for him?" she whispered. "And his wife and child. Hush! Yes." "Oh, you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?" "Hush! Yes, my poor sister; to the last.”

IfsGivingMayChildrenLittlesHandsEyeLastsFacesYoungPoorDoubtSawsWifeDyingCitizensWeakLet MeGive MeBraveFingersPatientLipsHungerStrangerTouchedNot AfraidWornAstonishmentHush
Author:Charles Dickens
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“There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that is passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness. At such time, a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate.”

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Author:Charles Dickens
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“Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.”

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Book:A Christmas Carol
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“A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.”

LoveLooksEyeWealthConsciousnessComfortRegardSilentAffectionSympathyAfflictionDeserted
Book:Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
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“Day was breaking at Plashwater Weir Mill Lock. Stars were yet visible, but there was dull light in the east that was not the light of night. The moon had gone down, and a mist crept along the banks of the river, seen through which the trees were the ghosts of trees, and the water was the ghost of water. This earth looked spectral, and so did the pale stars: while the cold eastern glare, expressionless as to heat or colour, with the eye of the firmament quenched, might have been likened to the stare of the dead.”

Has BeensLightMightEyeEarthNightStarsWaterNatureGoneTreeColdMoonRiversDown AndEastGhostStaringHeatColourVisibleDullPaleLocksEasternMight Have BeenMistMillsGlareFirmament
Book:A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens
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“The town was glad with morning light; places that had shown ugly and distrustful all night long, now wore a smile; and sparkling sunbeams dancing on chamber windows, and twinkling through blind and curtain before sleepers’ eyes, shed light even into dreams, and chased away the shadows of the night.”

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Book:The Complete Novels of Charles Dickens: 20 Illustrated Classics in One Volume: Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield…
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