Charles Dickens

Novelist

Charles Dickens was a British novelist known for his vivid characters and social commentary, particularly in works like 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Great Expectations.'

Born
February 7, 1812
Died
June 9, 1870
Quotes
1K
Rank
#140

Quote collection

Charles Dickens quotes (page 15 of 52)

1K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"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."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

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

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"All is going on as it was wont. The waves are hoarse with repetition of their mystery; the dust lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds soar and hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their trackless flight; the white arms beckon, in the moonlight, to the invisible country far away."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"Black are the brooding clouds and troubled the deep waters, when the Sea of Thought, first heaving from a calm, gives up its Dead"

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day's wine to La Guillotine."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"She was the most wonderful woman for prowling about the house. How she got from one story to another was a mystery beyond solution. A lady so decorous in herself, and so highly connected, was not to be suspected of dropping over the banisters or sliding down them, yet her extraordinary facility of locomotion suggested the wild idea."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

""You are a boy," said Mr. Dombey, suddenly and almost fiercely; "and what you think of, or affect to think of, is of little consequence. You have done well, Sir. Don't undo it.""

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"The coffee was boiling over a charcoal fire, and large slices of bread and butter were piled one upon the other like deals in a lumber yard."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"The rich, sweet smell of the hayricks rose to his chamber window; the hundred perfumes of the little flower-garden beneath scented the air around; the deep-green meadows shone in the morning dew that glistened on every leaf as it trembled in the gentle air: and the birds sang as if every sparkling drop were a fountain of inspiration to them."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"The white face of the winter day came sluggishly on, veiled in a frosty mist; and the shadowy ships in the river slowly changed to black substances; and the sun, blood-red on the eastern marshes behind dark masts and yards, seemed filled with the ruins of a forest it had set on fire."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"The bright, frosty day declined as they walked and spoke together. The sun dipped in the river far behind them, and the old city lay red before them, as their walk drew to a close. The moaning water cast its seaweed duskily at their feet, when they turned to leave its margin; and the rooks hovered above them with hoarse cries, darker splashes in the darkening air."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"... I had a latent impression that there was something decidedly fine in Mr. Wopsle's elocution - not for old associations' sake, I am afraid, but because it was very slow, very dreary, very up-hill and down-hill, and very unlike any way in which any man in any natural circumstances of life or death ever expressed himself about anything."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"Look round and round upon this bare bleak plain, and see even here, upon a winter's day, how beautiful the shadows are! Alas! It is the nature of their kind to be so. The loveliest things in life... are but shadows; and they come and go, and change and fade away, as rapidly as these."

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"I am light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy"

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

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

Read quote 9 likes
Charles Dickens Novelist
Popular

"Try to do unto others as you would have them do to you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes. It is much better that they should fail than you should."

Read quote 9 likes