Quotes from Charles Dickens

although Sydney Carton would never be a lion, he was an amazingly good jackal,

so cold a man, that his head, instead of being grey, seemed to be sprinkled with hoar-frost. Immense

It seems as if we can't go right, or do right, or be righted

The several duties of instruction in this establishment were thus discharged. English grammar, composition, geography, and the use of the dumb-bells, by Miss Melissa Wackles; writing, arithmetic, dancing, music, and general fascination, by Miss Sophia Wackles; the art of needle-work, marking, and samplery, by Miss Jane Wackles; corporal punishment, fasting, and other tortures and terrors, by Mrs Wackles.

captain said and did was honestly according to his nature;

He was a mere child in the world, but he didn't cry for the moon. He said to the world, 'Go your several ways in peace! Wear red coats, blue coats, lawn-sleeves, put pens behind your ears, wear aprons; go after glory, holiness, commerce, trade, any object you prefer; only - let Harold Skimpole live!

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.

Unembellished by any violence of gesticulation, this might have seemed no very high compliment to the lady's charms; but, as Mr. Bumble accompanied the threat with many warlike gestures, she was much touched with this proof of his devotion, and protested, with great admiration, that he was indeed a dove.

There are very few moments in a man's existence, when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.

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;

Spirit!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope!

So, Mr. Trabb measured and calculated me in the parlor, as if I were an estate and he the finest species of surveyor, and gave himself such a world of trouble that I felt that no suit of clothes could possibly remunerate him for his pains.

Die kleine Welt, in der das Leben von Kindern stattfindet, unabhängig davon, wer sie aufzieht, wird nichts so deutlich wahrgenommen und so deutlich gespürt wie Ungerechtigkeit. Die Ungerechtigkeit, die dem Kind widerfährt, mag nur eine Kleinigkeit sein, doch das Kind ist klein und seine Welt ist klein und sein Schaukelpferd ist im Verhältnis gesehen kaum kleiner als ein großes starkknochiges Jagdpferd.

Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it cannot be the pride of a mother in her children, for that is a compound of two cardinal virtues—faith and hope. This was the pride which swelled Mrs. Nickleby's heart that night, and this it was which left upon her face, glistening in the light when they returned home, traces of the most grateful tears she had ever shed.

Drat that boy," interposed my sister, frowning at me over work, "what a questioner he is. As no questions, and you'll be told no lies.

with a few comforting reflections, of which the chief were, that after all, perhaps, it was well it was no worse; the least said the soonest mended, and upon her word she did not know that it was so very bad after all; what was over couldn't be begun, and what couldn't be cured must be endured; with various other assurances of the like novel and strengthening description.

But, Mr. Grewgious seeing nothing there, not even a light in the windows, 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, in this state of existence - and few languages can be read until their alphabets are mastered.

in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. But

I need say nothing here, on the first head, because nothing can show better than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsified by the result.

Al pensar que una criatura como aquélla, tan graciosa y prometedora, podía haberle llamado padre, y haber sido una primavera en el sombrío invierno de su vida, se le enturbiaron los ojos.

Marley era morto, tanto per cominciare. Non c'era alcun dubbio. Il registro della sua sepoltura era stato firmato dal pastore, dal chierico, dall'impresario delle pompe funebri e dal responsabile della cerimonia funebre. L'aveva firmato anche Scrooge. E il nome di Scrooge alla Borsa era valido per qualsiasi cosa su cui lui decidesse di mettere mano. Il vecchio Marley era morto come il chiodo di una porta.

First—Recalled to Life I. The Period II. The Mail III. The Night Shadows IV. The Preparation V. The

on rock, in gravel, and alluvial mud, under the bright sky of