Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.
Here is a Collection of Charles Dickens Most Inspiring Quotes. Charles Dickens Quotes on Education, Writing and Time. Inspirational Charles Dickens Quotes For Success In Life. Short Charles Dickens Quotes. Charles Dickens Quotes about Christmas. Quotes and Sayings on Life, Love, Happiness and Society by Charles Dickens. Funny Dickens Quotes.
Charles Dickens Quotes and Sayings
Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.
There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.
A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman. A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man.
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.
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.
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
We need never be ashamed of our tears.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
What greater gift than the love of a cat.
And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death.
You have been the last dream of my soul.
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.
It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.
In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.
The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.
To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!
Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.
Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.
I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.
Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.
The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day.
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
You are in every line I have ever read.
And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire.
Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.
There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.
I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.
Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.
There is a wisdom of the head, and... there is a wisdom of the heart.
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?" "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."
No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.
It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.
A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.
A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. 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.
Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.
So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.
Think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
There is prodigious strength in sorrow and despair.
I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we'd give blood.
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.
Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.
I am what you designed me to be.I am your blade. You cannot now complain if you also feel the hurt.
No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused.
A multitude of people and yet a solitude.
For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
My advice is, never do to-morrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!
The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.
The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possiblities as probabilities.
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.
A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.
You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!
I stole her heart away and put ice in its place.
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.
Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
Death may beget life, but oppression can beget nothing other than itself.
I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disninterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were love in the world, I love her.
And I am bored to death with it. Bored to death with this place, bored to death with my life, bored to death with myself.
Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.
Not knowing how he lost himself, or how he recovered himself, he may never feel certain of not losing himself again.
Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.
We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.
My heart is set, as firmly as ever heart of man was set on woman. I have no thought, no view, no hope, in life beyond her; and if you oppose me in this great stake, you take my peace and happiness in your hands, and cast them to the wind.
And it was always said of him, 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! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!
"Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you."
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 object at a time.
Life is made of so many partings welded together.
Trifles make the sum of life.
No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.
There is a man who would give his life to keep a life you love beside you.
In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.
Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seeds of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
There were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.
The sun,--the bright sun, that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man--burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray.
I had considered how the things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished.
It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.
Some people are nobody's enemies but their own, yer know.
Credit is a system whereby a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay.
Give me a moment, because I like to cry for joy. It's so delicious, John dear, to cry for joy.
I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything
Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
When I speak of home, I speak of the place where in default of a better--those I love are gathered together; and if that place where a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name notwithstanding.
Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph.
I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.
Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.
Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.
I must do something or I shall wear my heart away.
We forge the chains we wear in life.
Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world.
I only ask to be free, the butterflies are free.
Women can always put things in fewest words. Except when it's blowing up; and then they lengthens it out.
The cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.
I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together.
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!
A very little key will open a very heavy door.
God bless us, every one!
In the moonlight which is always sad, as the light of the sun itself is--as the light called human life is--at its coming and its going.
I know that she deserves the best and purest love the heart of man can offer," said Mrs. Maylie; "I know that the devotion and affection of her nature require no ordinary return, but one that shall be deep and lasting.
New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing.
He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart.
Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.
There was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery.
Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.
If they would rather die,... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.
Remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in is misery!
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.
Constancy in love is a good thing; but it means nothing, and is nothing, without constancy in every kind of effort.
every idiot who goes about with a 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy.
He was consious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares, long, long, forgotten.
Poetry makes life what lights and music do the stage.
The streets looked small, of course. The streets that we have only seen as children always do I believe when we go back to them.
Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman.
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be.
Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.
It was a long and gloomy night that gathered on me, haunted by the ghosts of many hopes, of many dear remembrances, many errors, many unavailing sorrows and regrets.
You touch some of the reasons for my going, not for my staying away.
One should never be ashamed to cry. Tears are rain on the dust of earth.
Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
Try not to associate bodily defect with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason
A word in earnest is as good as a speech.
She had curiously thoughtful and attentive eyes; eyes that were very pretty and very good.
I never had one hour's happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death.
If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself.
Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.
These books were a way of escaping from the unhappiness of my life.
Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.
Marley was dead, to begin with... This must be distintly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn; and you are too sensible a man not to learn from this failure.
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