Quotes from Charles Dickens

Ten minutes, good, past eleven." "My blood!" ejaculated the vexed coachman, "and not atop of Shooter's yet! Tst! Yah! Get on with you!" The emphatic horse, cut short by the whip in a most decided negative, made a decided scramble for it, and the three other horses followed

Ball—when the one woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting, still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate.

Let me persuade you then--oh, do let me persuade you," said the child, "to think no more of gains or losses, and to try no fortune but the fortune we pursue together.

Brag is good dog, holdfast is better!

My flesh and blood...when it rises against me, is not my flesh and blood. I discard it.

and though the merriment was rather boisterous, still it came from the heart and not from the lips; and this is the right sort of merriment, after all.

State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this.

I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.

And from the death of each day's hope, another hope sprang up to live tomorrow.

I'm a devil at a quick mistake, and when I make one it takes the form of Lead.

Upon my word and honour I seem to be fated, and destined, and ordained, to live in the midst of things that I am never to hear the last of.

Risero alcuni di quel mutamento, ma egli li lasciava ridere e non vi badava; perché sapeva bene che molte cose buone, su questo mondo, cominciano sempre col muovere il riso in certa gente. Poiché ciechi aveano da essere, meglio valeva che stringessero gli occhi in una smorfia di ilarità, anzi che essere attaccati da qualche male meno attraente.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.

He] should come to the knowledge of the step, as a step taken, and not in the balance of suspense and doubt.

Ah! poetry makes life what light and music do the stage—strip the one of the false embellishments, and the other of its illusions, and what is there real in either to live or care for?

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott

Fu quella una data memorabile per me, poiché portò a molti mutamenti in me stesso. Avviene la medesima cosa in ogni esistenza. Immaginate un dato giorno distaccato da tutti gli altri, e pensate come avrebbe potuto esserne differente tutto il corso. Fermati, tu che leggi, e rifletti per un istante sulla lunga catena di ferro od oro, di spini o fiori, che non ti avrebbe mai avvinto, se non si fosse formato il primo anello in quell'unica, memorabile giornata.

I know this messenger, guard," said Mr. Lorry, getting down into the road—assisted from behind more swiftly than politely by the other two passengers, who immediately scrambled into the coach, shut the door, and pulled up the window. "He may come close; there's nothing wrong.

Uriah gave a kind of snivel. I think to express sympathy.

Ah, that 'if.' But it's of no use to despond. I can but do that, when I have tried everything and failed, and even then it won't serve me much.

To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction which to the crowd is irresistible.

Who could sit upon anything in Fleet-street during the busy hours of the day, and not be dazed and deafened by two immense processions, one ever tending westward with the sun, the other ever tending eastward from the sun, both ever tending to the plains beyond the range of red and purple where the sun goes down!

Scanty and insufficient suppers those, and innocent of meat, as if most other sauce to wretched bread. Yet, human fellowship infused some nourishment into the flinty viands, and struck some sparks of cheerfulness out of them. Fathers and mothers who had had their full share in the worst of the day, played gently with their meager children; and lovers, with such a word around then and before them, loved and hoped.

The day happened to be Sunday, and when I looked on the loveliness around me, and thought how it had grown and changed, and how the little wild flowers had been forming, and the voices of the birds had been strengthening, by day and by night, under the sun and under the stars, while poor I lay burning and tossing on my bed, the mere remembrance of having burned and tossed there, came like a check upon my peace.