Charles Dickens Quotes
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Yet, I had nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing.
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To see the butcher slap the steak before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable too - it really was - to see him cut it off so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite.
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It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.
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Some of the craftiest scoundrels that ever walked this earth . . . will gravely jot down in diaries the events of every day, and keep a regular debtor and creditor account with heaven, which shall always show a floating balance in their own favour.
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Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph.
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Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.
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Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it cannot be the pride of a mother in her children, for that is a compound of two cardinal virtues - faith and hope.
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'I believe, Mr. Snitchey,' said Alfred, 'there are quiet victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism, in it - even in many of its apparent lightnesses and contradictions - not the less difficult to achieve, because they have no earthly chronicle or audience - done every day in nooks and corners, and in little households, and in men's and women's hearts - any one of which might reconcile the sternest man to such a world, and fill him with belief and hope in it.
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But the mere truth won't do. You must have a lawyer.
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I believe the power of observation in numbers of very young children to be quite wonderful for its closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most grown people who are remarkable in this respect, may with greater propriety be said not to have lost the faculty, than to have acquired it; the rather, as I generally observe such men to retain a certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of being pleased, which are also an inheritance they have preserved from their childhood.
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My imagination would never have served me as it has, but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention.
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The world belongs to those who set out to conquer it armed with self confidence and good humour.
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My hair stands on end at the cost and charges of these boys. Why was I ever a father! Why was my father ever a father!
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Champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life.
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No one has the least regard for the man; with them all, he has been an object of avoidance, suspicion, and aversion; but the spark of life within him is curiously separable from himself now, and they have a deep interest in it, probably because it IS life, and they are living and must die.
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The forces that affect our lives, the influences that mold and shape us, are often like whispers in a different room, teasingly indistinct, apprehended only with difficulty.
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She had curiously thoughtful and attentive eyes; eyes that were very pretty and very good.
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Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations.
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Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
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Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
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For though we are perpetually bragging of it as our safety, it is nothing but a poor fringe on the mantle of the upper.
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Reflect upon your present blessings.
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Circumstances may accumulate so strongly even against an innocent man, that directed, sharpened, and pointed, they may slay him.
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I wear the chains I forged in life.