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Charles Dickens Quotes - Page 40

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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

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.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Stars, Heart
Charles Dickens (1868). “Barnaby Rudge, And, Hard Times: With Ten Illustrations”, p.346

Buy an annuity cheap, and make your life interesting to yourself and everybody else that watches the speculation.

Charles Dickens
Life, Interesting, Watches
1843-4 Jonas Chuzzlewit. Martin Chuzzlewit, ch.18.

Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the ivy green.

Charles Dickens
Life, Cells, Ivy
Charles Dickens (1905). “The Pickwick Papers”, p.70

It was the beginning of a day in June; the deep blue sky unsullied by a cloud, and teeming with brilliant light. The streets were, as yet, nearly free from passengers, the houses and shops were closed, and the healthy air of morning fell like breath from angels, on the sleeping town.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Morning, Angel
Charles Dickens (1863). “The Old Curiosity Shop”, p.102

The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred; but beneath all this, there lingers, in the least reflective mind, a vague and half-formed consciousness of having held such feelings long before, in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride and worldliness beneath it.

Charles Dickens
Country, Nature, Memories
Charles Dickens (2016). “Oliver Twist”, p.199, Pan Macmillan

The rippling of the river seemed to cause a correspondent stir in his uneasy reflections. He would have laid them asleep if he could, but they were in movement, like the stream, and all tending one way with a strong current.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Strong, Reflection
Charles Dickens (2009). “Our Mutual Friend”, p.727, Cosimo, Inc.

The air came laden with the fragrance it caught upon its way, and the bees, upborne upon its scented breath, hummed forth their drowsy satisfaction as they floated by.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Air, Way
Charles Dickens (1868). “The Old Curiosity Shop: And Reprinted Pieces”, p.72

The day was made for laziness, and lying on one's back in green places, and staring at the sky till its brightness forced one to shut one's eyes and go to sleep.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Lying, Sleep
Charles Dickens (1841). “Master Humphrey's Clock”, p.244

He lowered the window, and looked out at the rising sun. There was a ridge of ploughed land, with a plough upon it where it had been left last night when the horses were unyoked; beyond, a quiet coppice-wood, in which many leaves of burning red and golden yellow still remained upon the trees. Though the earth was cold and wet, the sky was clear, and the sun rose bright, placid, and beautiful.

Charles Dickens
Beautiful, Horse, Nature
Charles Dickens (2017). “THE GREATEST DICKENS CLASSICS (Illustrated Edition): Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, The Life of Dickens”, p.3592, e-artnow

The bright, frosty day declined as they walked and spoke together. The sun dipped in the river far behind them, and the old city lay red before them, as their walk drew to a close. The moaning water cast its seaweed duskily at their feet, when they turned to leave its margin; and the rooks hovered above them with hoarse cries, darker splashes in the darkening air.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Air, Cities
Charles Dickens (1870). “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, p.103

Not only is the day waning, but the year. The low sun is fiery and yet cold behind the monastery ruin, and the Virginia creeper on the Cathedral wall has showered half its deep-red leaves down on the pavement. There has been rain this afternoon, and a wintry shudder goes among the little pools on the cracked, uneven flag-stones, and through the giant elm-trees as they shed a gust of tears.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Wall, Rain
Charles Dickens (2009). “The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Edwin Drood and Miscellaneous”, p.5, Cosimo, Inc.

The white face of the winter day came sluggishly on, veiled in a frosty mist; and the shadowy ships in the river slowly changed to black substances; and the sun, blood-red on the eastern marshes behind dark masts and yards, seemed filled with the ruins of a forest it had set on fire.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Winter, Dark
Charles Dickens (2016). “Our Mutual Friend”, p.74, Xist Publishing

But, for all that, they had a very pleasant walk. The trees were bare of leaves, and the river was bare of water-lilies; but the sky was not bare of its beautiful blue, and the water reflected it, and a delicious wind ran with the stream, touching the surface crisply.

Charles Dickens
Beautiful, Nature, Blue
Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.7979, Delphi Classics

It was a cold hard easterly morning when he latched the garden gate and turned away. The light snowfall which had feathered his schoolroom windows on the Thursday, still lingered in the air, and was falling white, while the wind blew black.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Morning, Fall
Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.8218, Delphi Classics

"But even if he has been wicked," pursued Rose, "think how young he is; think that he may never have known a mother's love, or the comfort of a home; that ill-usage and blows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt. Aunt, dear aunt, for mercy's sake, think of this, before you let them drag this sick child to a prison, which in any case must be the grave of all his chances of amendment."

Charles Dickens
Mother, Nature, Children
Charles Dickens (2017). “The Charles Dickens Collection Volume One: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and Bleak House”, p.251, Open Road Media

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.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Wall, Winter
Charles Dickens (2015). “Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.14, Booklassic

The evening wind made such a disturbance just now, among some tall old elm-trees at the bottom of the garden, that neither my mother nor Miss Betsey could forbear glancing that way. As the elms bent to one another, like giants who were whispering secrets, and after a few seconds of such repose, fell into a violent flurry, tossing their wild arms about, as if their late confidences were really too wicked for their peace of mind.

Charles Dickens
Mother, Nature, Garden
Charles Dickens (1858). “The Personal History of David Copperfield ... With Frontispiece by H. K. Browne”, p.4

The earth covered with a sable pall as for the burial of yesterday; the clumps of dark trees, its giant plumes of funeral feathers, waving sadly to and fro: all hushed, all noiseless, and in deep repose, save the swift clouds that skim across the moon, and the cautious wind, as, creeping after them upon the ground, it stops to listen, and goes rustling on, and stops again, and follows, like a savage on the trail.

Charles Dickens
Nature, Dark, Moon
Charles Dickens (1844). “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, p.186, Chapman and Hall

A tranquil summer sunset shone upon him as he approached the end of his walk, and passed through the meadows by the river side. He had that sense of peace, and of being lightened of a weight of care, which country quiet awakens in the breasts of dwellers in towns.

Charles Dickens
Summer, Country, Nature
Charles Dickens (1868). “Little Dorrit”, p.318, Kartindo.com

Upon the purple tree-tops far away, and on the green height near at hand up which the shades were slowly creeping, there was an equal hush. Between the real landscape and its shadow in the water, there was no division; both were so untroubled and clear, and, while so fraught with solemn mystery of life and death, so hopefully reassuring to the gazer's soothed heart, because so tenderly and mercifully beautiful.

Charles Dickens
Beautiful, Nature, Real
Charles Dickens, George Cruikshank (1868). “The Works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit”, p.287

One disagreeable result of whispering is that it seems to evoke an atmosphere of silence, haunted by the ghosts of sound - strange cracks and tickings, the rustling of garments that have no substance in them, and the tread of dreadful feet that would leave no mark on the sea-sand or the winter snow.

Charles Dickens
Winter, Feet, Sea
Charles Dickens (1853). “Bleak House”, p.318

We came to the house, and it is an old house, full of great chimneys where wood is burnt on ancient dogs upon the hearth, and grim portraits (some of them with grim legends, too) lower distrustfully from the oaken panels of the walls.

Charles Dickens
Dog, Wall, Heart
Charles Dickens (2011). “A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories”, p.91, Penguin

There was no wind; there was no passing shadow on the deep shade of the night; there was no noise. The city lay behind him, lighted here and there, and starry worlds were hidden by the masonry of spire and roof that hardly made out any shapes against the sky. Dark and lonely distance lay around him everywhere, and the clocks were faintly striking two.

Charles Dickens
Lonely, Distance, Dark
Charles Dickens (2015). “Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Export”, p.863, Jester House Publishing via PublishDrive

The cold hoarfrost glistened on the tombstones, and sparkled like rows of gems, among the stone carvings of the old church. The snow lay hard and crisp upon the ground; and spread over the thickly-strewn mounds of earth, so white and smooth a cover, that it seemed as if corpses lay there, hidden only by their winding sheets.

Charles Dickens
Tombstone, White, Snow
Charles Dickens (1838). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.375

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.

Charles Dickens
Beautiful, Girl, Sleep
Charles Dickens (2017). “The Pickwick Papers”, p.202, BookRix

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