Famous Charles Dickens Quotations

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"Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks."
by Charles Dickens
"Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire."
by Charles Dickens
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
by Charles Dickens
"It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations."
by Charles Dickens
"I do not know the American gentleman, god forgive me for putting two such words together."
by Charles Dickens
"'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'"
by Charles Dickens
"'At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. ... We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.'"
by Charles Dickens
"'A merry Christmas, uncle God save you' cried a cheerful voice. 'Bah' said Scrooge. 'Humbug'"
by Charles Dickens
"...it was always said of him Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us"
by Charles Dickens
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."
by Charles Dickens
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom"
by Charles Dickens
"A man who could build a church, as one may say, by squinting at a sheet of paper."
by Charles Dickens
"A merry Christmas to everybody A happy New Year to all the world"
by Charles Dickens
"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!"
by Charles Dickens
"Accidents will occur in the best regulated families."
by Charles Dickens
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery."
by Charles Dickens
"Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that."
by Charles Dickens
"But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round...as a good time a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely."
by Charles Dickens
"By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves."
by Charles Dickens
"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! by"
by Charles Dickens
"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tries, and a touch that never hurts."
by Charles Dickens
"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
by Charles Dickens
"He'd make a lovely corpse."
by Charles Dickens
"I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time. A kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time. The only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely"
by Charles Dickens
"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 honestly out of countenance any day of the week, if there is anything to get got by it."
by Charles Dickens
"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..."
by Charles Dickens
"I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us."
by Charles Dickens
"I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free."
by Charles Dickens
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year."
by Charles Dickens
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year"
by Charles Dickens
"If a pig could give his mind to anything, he would not be a pig."
by Charles Dickens
"In love of home, the love of country has its rise."
by Charles Dickens
"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."
by Charles Dickens
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
by Charles Dickens
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
by Charles Dickens
"It is a far, far better thing that I do now, then I have ever done before... it is a far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known before."
by Charles Dickens
"It is a far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
by Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
by Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
by Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times it ws the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair we had everything before us, we had nothing before us we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."
by Charles Dickens
"It was a turkey He could never have stood upon his legs, that bird He would have snapped 'em off short in a minute, like sticks of sealing wax."
by Charles Dickens
"Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort."
by Charles Dickens
"Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house."
by Charles Dickens
"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
by Charles Dickens
"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
by Charles Dickens
"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
by Charles Dickens
"So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."
by Charles Dickens
"Somehow he Tim gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant for them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."
by Charles Dickens
"Spring is the time of the year, when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade."
by Charles Dickens
"Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature."
by Charles Dickens
"The law is sic a ass - a idiot."
by Charles Dickens
"Then Bob proposed 'A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us' Which all his family re-echoed. 'God bless us every one' said Tiny Tim, the last of all."
by Charles Dickens
"There is always something for which to be thankful."
by Charles Dickens
"There is a wisdom of the head, and ... a wisdom of the heart."
by Charles Dickens
"Train up a fig tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade of it."
by Charles Dickens
"We need never be ashamed of our tears."
by Charles Dickens
"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."
by Charles Dickens
"With affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other."
by Charles Dickens
"Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature ."
by Charles Dickens
"Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life."
by Charles Dickens
"Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew."
by Charles Dickens
"If its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body, they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists, at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe."
by Charles Dickens
"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."
by Charles Dickens
"I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here."
by Charles Dickens
"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
by Charles Dickens
"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."
by Charles Dickens
"Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust."
by Charles Dickens
"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true."
by Charles Dickens
"Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine."
by Charles Dickens
"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."
by Charles Dickens
"A person who can't pay gets another person who can't pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking-match."
by Charles Dickens
"The whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists."
by Charles Dickens
"I believe no satirist could breathe this air. If another Juvenal or Swift could rise up among us tomorrow, he would be hunted down. If you have any knowledge of our literature, and can give me the name of any man, American born and bred, who has anatomized our follies as a people, and not as this or that party; and who has escaped the foulest and most brutal slander, the most inveterate hatred and intolerant pursuit; it will be a strange name in my ears, believe me."
by Charles Dickens
"The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother."
by Charles Dickens
"He had but one eye and the pocket of prejudice runs in favor of two."
by Charles Dickens
"Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us."
by Charles Dickens
"The word of a gentleman is as good as his bond; and sometimes better."
by Charles Dickens
"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some"
by Charles Dickens
"I feel an earnest and humble desire, and shall till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness."
by Charles Dickens
"There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast."
by Charles Dickens
"Keep out of Chancery. It's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains."
by Charles Dickens
"If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
by Charles Dickens
"I revere the memory of Mr. F. as an estimable man and most indulgent husband, only necessary to mention Asparagus and it appeared or to hint at any little delicate thing to drink and it came like magic in a pint bottle; it was not ecstasy but it was comfort."
by Charles Dickens
"When you're a married man, Samivel, you'll understand a good many things as you don't understand now; but whether it's worth while, going through so much, to learn so little, as the charity-boy said when he got to the end of the alphabet, is a matter o taste."
by Charles Dickens
"It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained."
by Charles Dickens
"Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!"
by Charles Dickens
"The pure, the bright, The beautiful that stirred our hearts in youth, The impulses to wordless prayer, The streams of love and truth, The longing after something lost, The spirit's yearning cry, The striving after better hopes; These things can never die. The timid hand stretched forth to aid a brother in his need, A kindly word in grief's dark hour that proves a friend indeed; The plea for mercy softly breathed, When justice threatens high, The sorrow of a contrite heart; These things shall never die, shall never die. Let nothing pass, For every hand must find some work to do, Lose not a chance to waken love. Be firm and just and true, So shall a light that cannot fade beam on thee from on high, And angel voices say to thee; These things can never die."
by Charles Dickens
"They are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat."
by Charles Dickens
"Philosophers are only men in armor after all."
by Charles Dickens
"You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen - on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become accquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. To the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But in this separation, I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm. Let me feel now what sharp distress I may."
by Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
"The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the land, in England there shall be dear bread -- in Ireland, sword and brand; and poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand, so rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand, of the fine old English Tory days; hail to the coming time!"
by Charles Dickens
"There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk."
by Charles Dickens
"To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things -- but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature."
by Charles Dickens
"It was a good thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand."
by Charles Dickens
"A man in public life expects to be sneered at -- it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself."
by Charles Dickens
"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
by Charles Dickens
"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those dark, clustered houses encloses it"
by Charles Dickens
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. -Charles Dickens"
by Anonymous
"Here's the rule for bargains: Do other men, for they would do you. That's the true business precept."
by Charles Dickens
"A moment, and its glory was no more. The sun went down beneath the long dark lines of hill and cloud which piled up in the west an airy city, wall heaped on wall, and battlement on battlement; the light was all withdrawn; the shining church turned cold and dark; the stream forgot to smile; the birds were silent; and the gloom of winter dwelt on everything."
by Charles Dickens


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