Charles Dickens Quotes

That glorious vision of doing good, which is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good minds, arose before him. ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart. ~ A Tale of Two Cities 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 Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn't get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there. ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens He seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away. ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens "Fortnet or misfortnet, a man can but try; there's nowt to be done wi'out tryin'—cept laying down and dying." ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen's case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else's thorns in addition to his own. ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens He had been for many years, a quiet silent man, associating but little with other men, and used to companionship with his own thoughts. He had never known before the strength of the want in his heart for the frequent recognition of a nod, a look, a word; or the immense amount of relief that had been poured into it by drops through such small means. ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens The sexton observed, for one instant, a brilliant illumination within the windows of the church, as if the whole building were lighted up; it disappeared, the organ pealed forth a lively air, and whole troops of goblins, the very counterpart of the first one, poured into the churchyard, and began playing at leap-frog with the tombstones. ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Sound itself appeared to be frozen up, all was so cold and still. ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens