Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsHeartWorldCharacterLoveSaidWords Of WisdomInteresting CharactersFunnyInterestingLittlesMayKnowsHumorousInspirationalNaturePeopleSpookyEye

Famous Charles Dickens Quotes

“Possibly we might even improve the world a little, if we got up early in the morning, and took off our coats to the work.”

IfsWorldLittlesMightMorningCoatsLife And LoveUp Early
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].
Create image

“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
Create image

“But the moon came slowly up in all her gentle glory, and the stars looked out, and through the small compass of the grated window, as through the narrow crevice of one good deed in a murky life of guilt, the face of Heaven shone bright and merciful. He raised his head; gazed upward at the quiet sky, which seemed to smile upon the earth in sadness, as if the night, more thoughtful than the day, looked down in sorrow on the sufferings and evil deeds of men; and felt its peace sink deep into his heart.”

IfsMenHeartEarthFacesNightSufferingEvilHeavenStarsFeltNatureSadnessSkySorrowQuietMoonGloryWindowGuiltRaisedDeedsGentleThoughtfulGood DeedsCompassMercifulCrevice
Book:Barnaby Rudge, And, Hard Times: With Ten Illustrations
Create image

“In this way they went on, and on, and on-in the language of the story-books-until at last the village lights appeared before them, and the church spire cast a long reflection on the graveyard grass; as if it were a dial (alas, the truest in the world!) marking, whatever light shone out of Heaven, the flight of days and weeks and years, by some new shadow on that solemn ground.”

IfsWorldWayYearsLongBookStoriesLightLastsLanguageHeavenNatureChurchWeekReflectionShadowCastsFlightGrassVillageAlasSolemnTruestGraveyardSpiresStory Book
Book:Works of Charles Dickens
Create image

“I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.”

IfsMenIdeasFacesBusinessKnownWeekHonestyTrustWords Of WisdomStaringNonsenseQuantityConventionalDishonestyDon't TrustCountenanceBad Man
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
Create image

“If an enthusiastic, ardent, and ambitious man marry a wife on whose name there is a stain, which, though it originate in no fault of hers, may be visited by cold and sordid people upon her, and upon his children also: and, in exact proportion to his success in the world, be cast in his teeth, and made the subject of sneers against him: he may, no matter how generous and good his nature, one day repent of the connection he formed in early life; and she may have the pain and torture of knowing that he does so.”

PeopleIfsMenWorldMayChildrenDoeMadeMatterPainNamesKnowingWifeSubjectsColdOne DayConnectionsFaultsCastsTeethGenerousTortureProportionRepentEnthusiasticStainsArdentOrigin Of LifeSneerEarly Life
Author:Charles Dickens
Create image

“"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."”

IfsThinkingWorldSaidEndsHandsNightDarkWonderSeaWindElementsWaveStormDrivingLightningAlmightyCaptainsHookSailorRoaringStormyThrough The StormStormy Nights
Book:The Works of Charles Dickens
Create image

“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.”

IfsKnowsStatesSeemsLanguageStarsNatureExistenceWindowLettersAlphabet
Book:The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Pieces
Create image

“Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer...? If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his won pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

IfsShouldYearsHeartSaidFunnyHoursFindingsBillsLipsChristmasIdiotIf I CouldFinding YourselfBuriedStakesMerryMerry ChristmasPuddingHolliesChristmas TimeScrooge
Author:Charles Dickens
Create image

“Blackened skeleton arms of wood by the wayside pointed upward to the convent, as if the ghosts of former travellers, overwhelmed by the snow, haunted the scene of their distress. Icicle-hung caves and cellars built for refuges from sudden storms, were like so many whispers of the perils of the place; never-resting wreaths and mazes of mist wandered about, hunted by a moaning wind; and snow, the besetting danger of the mountain, against which all its defences were taken, drifted sharply down.”

IfsTakenDangerWindArmsSceneMountainBuiltWoodsStormGhostSnowFormerRefugeHungDistressCavesOverwhelmedPerilDefenceMistTravellerSkeletonsMazesHuntedCellarsMoaningWreathsIcicles
Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit
Create image

“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.”

IfsWayEarthLawLostNatureGreaterColorMoonDepthBottomCloudsFlyingConfusionSmokeHeightFuelRemarkableFrightenedDreadLaws Of NatureHere And TherePlungeSuggestingDisturbanceDampGreater Heights
Book:The Personal History of David Copperfield0: In Three Volumes
Create image

“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.”

IfsTogetherNightBeatsRainWindowHeavyWeatherBranchesLightningFuryVinesTappingHeavy Rain
Book:The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit
Create image

“The clouds were flying fast, the wind was coming up in gusts, banging some neighboring shutters that had broken loose, twirling the rusty chimney-cowls and weathercocks, and rushing round and round a confined adjacent churchyard as if it had a mind to blow the dead citizens out of their graves. The low thunder, muttering in all quarters of the sky at once, seemed to threaten vengeance for this attempted desecration, and to mutter, "Let them rest! Let them rest!”

IfsMindSkyWindBrokenCitizensLowsRoundsCloudsBlowFlyingGravesWeatherQuartersVengeanceThunderConfinedRushingBangingChimneysShuttersMutteringTwirling
Book:LITTLE DORRIT
Create image