Charles Dickens Quotes

38 quotations by Charles Dickens

With affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other.

Train up a fig tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade of it.

Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.

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, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other 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.

We need never be ashamed of our tears.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.

Somehow he Tim gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant for them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

It was a turkey He could never have stood upon his legs, that bird He would have snapped 'em off short in a minute, like sticks of sealing wax.

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times it ws 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 we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

'At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. ... We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.'

Then Bob proposed 'A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us' Which all his family re-echoed. 'God bless us every one' said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

There is always something for which to be thankful.

'Out upon merry Christmas What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer... If I could work my will,' said Scrooge indignantly, 'every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his won pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should'

Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

'A merry Christmas, uncle God save you' cried a cheerful voice. 'Bah' said Scrooge. 'Humbug'

...it was always said of him Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time...

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honestly out of countenance any day of the week, if there is anything to get got by it.

In love of home, the love of country has its rise.

There is a wisdom of the head, and ... a wisdom of the heart.

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round...as a good time a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

A merry Christmas to everybody A happy New Year to all the world

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

If a pig could give his mind to anything, he would not be a pig.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

The law is sic a ass - a idiot.