they’re so fond of Liberty in this part of the globe, that they buy her and sell her and carry her to market with ’em. They’ve such a passion for Liberty, that they can’t help...

For the rest of his life, Oliver Twist remembers a single word of blessing spoken to him by another child because this word stood out so strikingly from the consistent discouragement around him.

…and to-morrow looked in my face more steadily than I could look at it

It’s always best on these occasions to do what the mob do.’ ‘But suppose there are two mobs?’ suggested Mr. Snodgrass. ‘Shout with the largest,’ replied Mr. Pickwick.

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...

The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran into evening, so much life in the city ran into death according to rule, time and tide waited for no man, the...

Educating the natives of Borrioboola-Gha, on the left bank of the Niger.

Law is an ass, an idiot.

Professionally he declines and falls, and as a friend he drops into poetry.

A Being, erect upon two legs, and bearing all the outward semblance of a man, and not of a monster.

To a young heart everything is fun.

On the Rampage, Pip, and off the Rampage, Pip; such is Life!

Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long...

The society of girls is a very delightful thing, Copperfield. It’s not professional, but it’s very delightful.

With a leer of mingled sweetness and slyness; with one eye on the future, one on the bride, and an arch expression in her face, partly spiritual, partly spirituous, and wholly professional and peculiar to...

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its...

Mrs Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her clenliness more umcomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and some people do the same by...

There was once a king, and he had a queen; and he was the manliest of his gender, and she was the loveliest of hers. They had nineteen children, and were always having more.

God bless us, every one!

We must leave the discovery of this mystery, like all others, to time, and accident, and Heaven’s pleasure.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

He was simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and in the small. So all true souls ever are. So every true soul ever was, ever is, and ever will...

the mind is not at liberty to soar to any exalted form of expression. Still, it is a great pursuit! A great pursuit!

There might be some credit in being jolly.

Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea — on, on — until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the...

In this way they went on, and on, and on–in the language of the story-books–until at last the village lights appeared before them, and the church spire cast a long reflection on the graveyard grass;...

There is no deception now, Mr. Weller. Tears, said Job, with a look of momentary slyness, “tears are not the only proofs of distress, nor the best ones.”

He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy! . . . And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!

All the housemaid hopes is, happiness for ’em – but marriage is a lottery, and the more she thinks about it, the more she feels the independence and the safety of a single life.

I pity his ignorance and despise him.

Oh, what a misfortune is mine, cried Bradley, breaking off to wipe the starting perspiration from his face as he shook from head to foot, “”that I cannot so control myself as to appear a...

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-humor

In love of home, the love of country has its rise

A man in public life expects to be sneered at — it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

It is a dreadful thing to wait and watch for the approach of death; to know that hope is gone, and recovery impossible; and to sit and count the dreary hours through long, long, nights...

Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured...

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.

Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.

Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips.

It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for...

But struggling with these better feelings was pride,–the vice of the lowest and most debased creatures no less than of the high and self-assured. The miserable companion of thieves and ruffians, the fallen outcast of...

My sister having so much to do, was going to church vicariously, that is to say, Joe and I were going.

There was not one straight floor from the foundation to the roof; the ceilings were so fantastically clouded by smoke and dust, that old woman might have told fortunes in them better than in grouts...

The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the land, in England there shall be dear bread / in Ireland, sword and brand; and poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and...

Can I unmoved see thee dying/ On a log,/ Expiring frog!

When you’re a married man, Samivel, you’ll understand a good many things as you don’t understand now; but whether it’s worth while, going through so much, to learn so little, as the charity-boy said when...

Of all the ruinous and desolate places my uncle had ever beheld, this was the most so. It looked as if it had once been a large house of entertainment; but the roof had fallen...

I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east.