Quotes by Dickens, Charles

"There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk."

Dickens, Charles on portraits   

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"To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things -- but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature."

Dickens, Charles on poverty and the poor   

"A man in public life expects to be sneered at -- it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself."

Dickens, Charles on public   

"Regrets are the natural property of gray hairs."

Dickens, Charles on regret   

"I believe no satirist could breathe this air. If another Juvenal or Swift could rise up among us tomorrow, he would be hunted down. If you have any knowledge of our literature, and can give me the name of any man, American born and bred, who has anatomized our follies as a people, and not as this or that party; and who has escaped the foulest and most brutal slander, the most inveterate hatred and intolerant pursuit; it will be a strange name in my ears, believe me."

Dickens, Charles on sarcasm   

"Minerva House was a finishing establishment for young ladies, where some twenty girls of the ages from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything and a knowledge of nothing."

Dickens, Charles on school   

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other."

Dickens, Charles on secrets
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"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."

Dickens, Charles on books - reading
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"I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here."

Dickens, Charles on bores and boredom   

"I never see any difference in boys. I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys and beef-faced boys."

Dickens, Charles on boys   

"Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity."

Dickens, Charles on business   

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress."

Dickens, Charles on change
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"Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust."

Dickens, Charles on change
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"Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door."

Dickens, Charles on charity
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"Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks."

Dickens, Charles on cheerfulness   

"I feel an earnest and humble desire, and shall till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness."

Dickens, Charles on cheerfulness   

"A lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper -- a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable."

Dickens, Charles on temper
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"A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self."

Dickens, Charles on time
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"There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth."

Dickens, Charles on truth   

"We know, Mr. Weller -- we, who are men of the world -- that a good uniform must work its way with the women, sooner or later."

Dickens, Charles on uniforms   

"Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!"

Dickens, Charles on vice   

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"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 honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it."

Dickens, Charles on villains
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"Take example by your father, my boy, and be very careful of vidders all your life, specially if they've kept a public house, Sammy."

Dickens, Charles on widowhood   

"It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained."

Dickens, Charles on wives   

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

Dickens, Charles on worth
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"A boy's story is the best that is ever told."

Dickens, Charles on youth
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"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true."

Dickens, Charles on communication
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"Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine."

Dickens, Charles on company
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"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..."

Dickens, Charles on concentration   

"The whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists."

Dickens, Charles on creativity
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"A person who can't pay gets another person who can't pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking-match."

Dickens, Charles on credit   

"It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away."

Dickens, Charles on cries and crying
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"He would make a lovely corpse."

Dickens, Charles on death   

"My other piece of advice, Copperfield, said Mr. Micawber, you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, andand, in short, you are for ever floored. As I am!"

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"Its very strange, said Mr. Dick that I never can get that quite right; I never can make that perfectly clear. "

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"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 going direct the other wayin 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. "

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement. As the captive men were faded and haggard, so the iron was rusty, the stone was slimy, the wood was rotten, the air was faint, the light was dim. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside; and would have kept its polluted atmosphere intact, in one of the spice islands of the Indian Ocean. "

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"God bless us every one! said Tiny Tim, the last of all. "

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"If the law supposes that, said Mr. Bumble, the law is a assa idiot. If thats the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experienceby experience. "

Dickens, Charles on uncategorised   

"Let me feel now what sharp distress I may"

Dickens, Charles on