Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigor. With such people the gray head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.

— Charles Dickens

Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.

— Charles Dickens

If its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body, they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists, at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe.

— Charles Dickens

It was a good thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.

— Charles Dickens

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

— Charles Dickens

Here's the rule for bargains: Do other men, for they would do you. That's the true business precept.

— Charles Dickens

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.

— Charles Dickens

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...

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

He would make a lovely corpse.

— Charles Dickens

Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.

— Charles Dickens

Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.

— Charles Dickens

There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.

— Charles Dickens

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

— Charles Dickens

Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

— Charles Dickens

He had but one eye and the pocket of prejudice runs in favor of two.

— Charles Dickens

Now, what I want is, facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

— Charles Dickens

Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances... in short, by the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.

— Charles Dickens

Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us.

— Charles Dickens

The word of a gentleman is as good as his bond; and sometimes better.

— Charles Dickens

I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.

— Charles Dickens

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

— Charles Dickens

Such is hope, heaven's own gift to struggling mortals, pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad.

— Charles Dickens

There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.

— Charles Dickens

I revere the memory of Mr. F. as an estimable man and most indulgent husband, only necessary to mention Asparagus and it appeared or to hint at any little delicate thing to drink and it came like magic in a pint bottle; it was not ecstasy but it was comfort.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

— Charles Dickens

Keep out of Chancery. It's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains.

— Charles Dickens

Anything for the quick life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse.

— Charles Dickens

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

— Charles Dickens

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

— Charles Dickens

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

— Charles Dickens

When you're a married man, Samivel, you'll understand a good many things as you don't understand now; but whether it's worth while, going through so much, to learn so little, as the charity-boy said when he got to the end of the alphabet, is a matter o taste.

— Charles Dickens

Lord, keep my memory green.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

Dollars! All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the chance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures were gauged by their dollars; life was auctioned, appraised, put up, and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honor and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Nature and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Deface the banner of the nation for an idle rag; pollute it star by star; and cut out stripe by stripe as from the arm of a degraded soldier. Do anything for dollars! What is a flag to them!

— Charles Dickens

Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!

— Charles Dickens

They are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat.

— Charles Dickens

Philosophers are only men in armor after all.

— Charles Dickens

The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the land, in England there shall be dear bread -- in Ireland, sword and brand; and poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand, so rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand, of the fine old English Tory days; hail to the coming time!

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

Regrets are the natural property of gray hairs.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.

— Charles Dickens

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

A boy's story is the best that is ever told.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

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

— Charles Dickens

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!

— Charles Dickens

Let me feel now what sharp distress I may

— Charles Dickens

They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood but for those whom they would give their blood.

— Charles Dickens

Never sign a walentine with your own name.

— Charles Dickens

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!

— Charles Dickens

Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away.

— Charles Dickens

My Wednesday nights came regularly round, our quartette parties came regularly off, my violincello was in good tune, and there was nothing wrong in my world--or if anything not much--or little or much, it was no affair of mine.

— Charles Dickens

Barkis is willin'.

— Charles Dickens

You will be surprised that he proposed seven times once in a hackney-coach once in a boat once in a pew once on a donkey at Tunbridge Wells and the rest on his knees.

— Charles Dickens

You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace. This and the confusion of my thoughts, so that I am fit for nothing, is what I mean by your being the ruin of me. But if you would return a favourable answer to my offer of marriage, you could draw me to any good--every good--with equal force.

— Charles Dickens

A wedding is a licensed subject to joke upon, but there really is no great joke in the matter after all;--we speak merely of the ceremony, and beg it to be distinctly understood that we indulge in no hidden sarcasm upon a married life. Mixed up with the pleasure and joy of the occasion, are the many regrets at quitting home, the tears of parting between parent and child, the consciousness of leaving the dearest and kindest friends of the happiest portion of human life, to encounter its cares and troubles with others still untried and little known: natural feelings which we would not render this chapter mournful by describing, and which we should be still more unwilling to be supposed to ridicule.

— Charles Dickens

The noble lady's condition on these delightful occasions was one compounded of heroic endurance and heroic forgiveness. Lurid indications of the better marriages she might have made, shone athwart the awful gloom of her composure, and fitfully revealed the cherub as a little monster unaccountably favoured by Heaven, who had possessed himself of a blessing for which many of his superiors had sued and contended in vain. So firmly had this his position towards his treasure become established, that when the anniversary arrived, it always found him in an apologetic state.

— Charles Dickens

The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up, for ever, on my best affections. Deep affliction has but strengthened and refined them.

— Charles Dickens

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

— Charles Dickens

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.

— Charles Dickens

Though little Paul was said, in nursery phrase, "to take a deal of notice for his age," he took as little notice of all this as of the preparations for his christening on the next day but one. . . . Neither did he, on the arrival of the appointed morning, show any sense of its importance; being, on the contrary, unusually inclined to sleep, and unusually inclined to take it ill in his attendants that they dressed him to go out.

— Charles Dickens