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Charles Dickens Quotes - Page 31

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To be allowed to call her Dora, to write to her, to dote upon and worship her, to have reason to think that when she was with other people she was yet mindful of me, seemed to me the summit of human ambition - I am sure

To be allowed to call her "Dora", to write to her, to dote upon and worship her, to have reason to think that when she was with other people she was yet mindful of me, seemed to me the summit of human ambition - I am sure it was the summit of mine.

Charles Dickens
Love, Writing, Ambition
Charles Dickens (2016). “David Copperfield (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.291, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

The secret was such an old one now, had so grown into me and become a part of myself, that I could not tear it away.

Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Secret, Tears
Charles Dickens (1873). “Tale of Two Cities”, p.313

it is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.

Charles Dickens
Heart, Men, Expectations
Charles Dickens (2016). “British Classics: Great Expectations”, p.148, The Planet

The jovial party broke up next morning. Breakings-up are capital things in our school-days, but in after life they are painful enough. Death, self-interest, and fortune's changes, are every day breaking up many a happy group, and scattering them far and wide; and the boys and girls never come back again.

Charles Dickens
Girl, Morning, Party
Charles Dickens (2016). “The Pickwick Papers: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.344, Pan Macmillan

Let us leave our old friend in one of those moments of unmixed happiness which, if we seek them, there are ever some, to cheer our transitory existence here. There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

Charles Dickens
Cheer, Dark, Light
Charles Dickens (1838). “The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.607

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.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Stars, Letters
Charles Dickens (1871). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Pieces”, p.114

Then idiots talk....of Energy. If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy. It is such a conventional superstition, such parrot gabble! What the deuce!....But show me a good opportunity, show me something really worth being energetic about, and I'll show you energy.

Charles Dickens
Opportunity, Energy, Deuces

It is one of those problems of human nature, which may be noted down, but not solved; - although Ralph felt no remorse at that moment for his conduct towards the innocent, true-hearted girl; although his libertine clients had done precisely what he had expected, precisely what he most wished, and precisely what would tend most to his advantage, still he hated them for doing it, from the very bottom of his soul.

Charles Dickens
Girl, Character, Interesting
Charles Dickens (1854). “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ... With a Frontispiece from a Painting by T. Webster”, p.223

No one has the least regard for the man; with them all, he has been an object of avoidance, suspicion, and aversion; but the spark of life within him is curiously separable from himself now, and they have a deep interest in it, probably because it IS life, and they are living and must die.

Charles Dickens
Men, Words Of Wisdom, Aversion
Charles Dickens (2006). “Our Mutual Friend: Easyread Edition”, p.243, ReadHowYouWant.com

And what an example of the power of dress young Oliver Twist was! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar;—it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have fixed his station in society. But now he was enveloped in the old calico robes, that had grown yellow in the same service; he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once—a parish child—the orphan of a workhouse—the humble, half-starved drudge—to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none.

Charles Dickens
Children, Humble, Yellow

For who can wonder that man should feel a vague belief in tales of disembodied spirits wandering through those places which they once dearly affected, when he himself, scarcely less separated from his old world than they, is for ever lingering upon past emotions and bygone times, and hovering, the ghost of his former self, about the places and people that warmed his heart of old?

Charles Dickens
Heart, Past, Men
Charles Dickens, Peter Preston (1998). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories”, p.13, Wordsworth Editions

Its matter was not new to me, but was presented in a new aspect. It shook me in my habit - the habit of nine-tenths of the world - of believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it.

Charles Dickens
Believe, Words Of Wisdom, World
Charles Dickens, Hablot Knight Browne (1848). “Dombey and Son”, p.530

Hallo! A great deal of steam! the pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that. That was the pudding.

Charles Dickens
Food, Doors, Smell
Charles Dickens (2011). “A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories”, p.54, Penguin

What are the odds so long as the fire of the soul is kindled at the taper of conviviality, and the wing of friendship never molts a feather?

Charles Dickens
Friendship, Fire, Odds

"What is your best, your very best, ale a glass?" "Two pence halfpenny," says the landlord, "is the price of the Genuine Stunning Ale." "Then," says I, producing the money, "just draw me a glass of the Genuine Stunning, if you please, with a good head on it."

Charles Dickens
Beer, Glasses, Two

Equity sends questions to Law. Law sends questions back to equity; Law finds it can't do this, equity finds it can't do that; neither can do anything, without this solicitor instructing and this counsel appearing for A, and that solicitor instructing & that counsel appearing for B.

Charles Dickens
Law, Equity, Solicitors
Charles Dickens (1853). “Bleak House”, p.67

The wide stare stared itself out for one while; the Sun went down in a red, green, golden glory; the stars came out in the heavens, and the fire-flies mimicked them in the lower air, as men may feebly imitate the goodness of a better order of beings; the long dusty roads and the interminable plains were in repose-and so deep a hush was on the sea, that it scarcely whispered of the time when it shall give up its dead.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Stars, Giving Up
CHARLES DICKENS (1867). “LITTLE DORRIT”, p.10

When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on the horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss, were like glimpses of another shore with towers and buildings.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Sight, Sea
Charles Dickens (1850). “Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observations of David Copperfield the Younger”, p.253

And the voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence, in their ceaseless murmuring, of love - of love, eternal and illimitable, not bounded by the confines of this world, or by the end of time, but ranging still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible country far away!

Charles Dickens
Love, Country, Sea
Charles Dickens (1867). “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].”, p.502

"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."

Charles Dickens
Dark, Thinking, Night
Charles Dickens (1872). “The Works of Charles Dickens”, p.280

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.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Moon, Clouds
Charles Dickens (1850). “The Personal History of David Copperfield0: In Three Volumes”, p.265

The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy. The smoke hung sluggishly above the chimney-tops as if it lacked the courage to rise, and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour.

Charles Dickens
Rain, Dark, Air
Charles Dickens (1838). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.347

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.

Charles Dickens
Rain, Night, Weather
Charles Dickens (1867). “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.409

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.

Charles Dickens
Family, Philosophy, Character
Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.4671, Delphi Classics

And 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.

Charles Dickens
Believe, United States, Adequate
Charles Dickens (1901). “The Oxford India paper Dickens”

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