the lesser grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with a red upon it that the sun had never given, and would never take away.

There is a wisdom of the head, and… there is a wisdom of the heart.

The mother who lay in the grave, was the mother of my infancy; the little creature in her arms, was myself, as I had once been, hushed for ever on her bosom.

I do must decidedly object, and have a most invincible and powerful repugnance to that frequent reference to the Almighty in small matters, which so many excellent persons consider necessary in the education of children....

But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,’ faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and...

if the world go wrong, it was, in some off-hand manner, never meant to go right.

Weel, ma´am’ said Stephen, making the best of it, with a smile; ‘when I ha´finished off, I mun quit this part, and try another. Fortnet or misfortnet, a man can but try; there´s now to...

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...

[S]ome score of members of the High Court of Chancery bar ought to be — as here they are — mistily engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause, tripping one...

Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows – and china.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose,...

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

I’ve a pretty large experience of boys, and you’re a bad set of fellows. Now mind . . . you behave yourself !

We cannot have single gentlemen to come into this establishment and sleep like double gentlemen without paying extra for it . . .

Anythin’ for a quiet life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse

I pass my whole life, miss, in turning an immense pecuniary Mangle.

Night, like a giant, fills the church, from pavement to roof, and holds dominion through the silent hours. Pale dawn again comes peeping through the windows: and, giving place to day, sees night withdraw into...

If you will take me for your wife, Walter, I will love you dearly. If you will let me go with you, Walter, I will go to the world’s end without fear. I can give...

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

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

Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!

He has a very nice face and style, really,” said Mrs. Kenwigs.”He certainly has,” added Miss Petowker. “There’s something in his appearance quite–dear, dear, what’s the word again?””What word?” inquired Mr. Lillyvick.”Why–dear me, how stupid...

It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it,” urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room.That is no excuse,” returned Mr. Brownlow. “You were present on the...

I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where...

It is the custom on the stage in all good, murderous melodramas, to present the tragic and the comic scenes in as regular alternation as the layers of red and white in a side of...

He executed his commission with great promptitude and dispatch, only calling at one public-house for half a minute, and even that might be said to be in his way, for he went in at one...

If you can’t get to be uncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through going crooked. […] live well and die happy.

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused—in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened—by the recurrence of Christmas. There are people...

He thought of the number of girls and women she had seen marry, how many homes with children in them she had seen grow up around her, how she had contentedly pursued her own lone...

Go ye, who rest so placidly upon the sacred Bard who had been young, and when he strung his harp was old, and had never seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging their bread;...

Circumstances beyond my individual control.

It is when our budding hopes are nipped beyond recovery by some rough wind, that we are the most disposed to picture to ourselves what flowers they might have borne, if they had flourished ....

On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels . . .

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

He’d make a lovely corpse.

I don’t remember forms or faces now, but I know the girl was beautiful. I know she was; for in the bright moonlight nights, when I start from my sleep, and all is quiet about...

Ah, Miss Harriet, it would do us no harm to remember oftener than we do, that vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

If you could see my legs when I take my boots off, you’d form some idea of what unrequited affection is.

The man who knows only one subject is almost as tiresome as the man who knows no subject.

Half a crown in the bill, if you look at the waiter.

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

What am I doing? Tearing myself. My usual occupation at most times.

The girl’s life had been squandered in the streets, and among the most noisome of the stews and dens of London, but there was something of the woman’s original nature left in her still; and...

‎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.

She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have...

We are thankful to come here for rest, sir,” said Jenny. “You see, you don’t know what the rest of this place is to us; does he, Lizzie? It’s the quiet, and the air.””The quiet!”...

What is he to learn? To imitate? Or to avoid? When your friends the bees worry themselves about their sovereign, and become perfectly distracted touching the slightest monarchical movement, are we men to learn the...

It is a place that ‘grows upon you’ every day. There seems to be always something to find out in it. There are the most extraordinary alleys and by-ways to walk about in. You can...

From the beginning, she had sat looking at him fixedly. As he now leaned back in his chair, and bent his deep-set eyes upon her in his turn, perhaps he might have seen one wavering...

Are you thankful for not being young?”Yes, sir. If I was young, it would all have to be gone through again, and the end would be a weary way off, don’t you see?…