Charles Dickens' 200th anniversary

Quotes by Charles Dickens
“A man who could build a church, as one may say, by squinting at a sheet of paper.”
-Charles Dickens

“Accidents will occur in the best regulated families.”
-Charles Dickens

“I do not know the American gentleman, god forgive me for putting two such words -together.” -Charles Dickens

“Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.”
-Charles Dickens

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
-Charles Dickens

“Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
-Charles Dickens

“Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature.”
-Charles Dickens

“Train up a fig tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade of it.” -Charles Dickens

“With affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other.”
-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, A Tale of Two Cities

“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 doing direct the other way - in 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, A Tale of Two Cities

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” -Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1849

“We need never be ashamed of our tears.”
-Charles Dickens, Great Expectations