Charles Dickens Quotes

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed. There ain’t much credit in that.

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

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

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused – in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened – by the recurrence of Christmas.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.

We forge the chains we wear in life.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.

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.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

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

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

‚Do you spell it with a ‚V‘ or a ‚W‘?‘ inquired the judge. ‚That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord‘.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.

Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips.

There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.

We are so very ‚umble.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

‚Tis love that makes the world go round, my baby.

Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature.

Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss.

There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.

Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows – and china.

A boy’s story is the best that is ever told.

It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.

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

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

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.

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.