Quotes from Charles Dickens

It is not often," said the second of the three, addressing Monsieur Defarge, "that many of these miserable beasts know the taste of wine, or of anything but black bread and death. Is it not so, Jacques?

The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance upon Monseigneur.

a family of such antiquity and importance has a right to a ghost.

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

Those were drinking days, and most men drank hard. So very great is the improvement Time has brought about in such habits, that a moderate statement of the quantity of wine and punch which one man would swallow in the course of a night, without any detriment to his reputation as a perfect gentleman, would seem, in these days, a ridiculous exaggeration.

The last of the three now said his say, as he put down his empty drinking vessel and smacked his lips.

It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most polluted, were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces, like a toy-puzzle for a young Devil, and was put together again when the occasion wanted it.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,it was the spring of hope...

There is nothing half so green that I know anywhere, as the grass of that churchyard; nothing half so shady as its trees; nothing half so quiet as its tombstones.

So does a whole world, with all of its greatness and littleness, lie in a twinkling star.

It's very soon done, sir, isn't it?' inquired Mr. Folair of the collector, leaning over the table to address him. What is soon done, sir?' returned Mr. Lillyvick. The tying up, the fixing oneself with a wife,' replied Mr. Folair. 'It don't take long, does it?' No, sir,' replied Mr. Lillyvick, colouring. 'It does not take long. And what then, sir?' Oh! nothing,' said the actor. 'It don't take a man long to hang himself, either, eh? Ha, ha!

Why?" said Stryver. "Now, I'll put you in a corner," forensically shaking a forefinger at him. "You are a man of business and bound to have a reason. State your reason. Why wouldn't you go?" "Because," said Mr. Lorry,

Do you imagine --" Mr. Lorry had begun, when Miss Pross took him up short with: "Never imagine anything. Have no imagination at all." "I stand corrected; do you suppose -- you go so far as to suppose, sometimes?" "Now and then," said Miss Pross.

Mr. Carton," she answered, after an agitated pause, "the secret is yours, not mine, and I promise to respect it.

How are you to get up the sympathies of the audience in a legitimate manner, if there isn't a little man contending against a big one?

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was

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

Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally

People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received

London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits

She did not greatly alter in appearance. The plain dark dresses, akin to mourning dresses, which she and her child wore, were as neat and as well attended to as the brighter clothes of happy days. She lost her colour, and the old and intent expression was a constant, not an occasional, thing; otherwise, she remained very pretty and comely.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen

Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth

se there was a matter of half a ream of brown paper stuck upon me, from first to last. As I laid all of a heap in our kitchen, plastered all over, you might have thought I was a large brown-paper parcel, chock full of nothing but groans. Did I groan loud, Wackford, or did I groan soft?' asked Mr Squeers, appealing to his son.