Charles Dickens

Dickens writes that one of his characters, "listened to everything without seeming to, which showed he understood his business.

Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read since I first [met you]. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since,__n the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation, I associate you only with the good; and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may.

what such people miscall their religion, is a vent for their bad humours and arrogance.

The broken heart. You think you will die, but you keep living, day after day after terrible day.

Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

I have broken where I should have bent; and have mused and brooded, when my spirit should have mixed with all God's great creation. The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother. I have turned from the world, and I pay the penalty.

Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.

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 quite path-for him.~ Stephen speaking of Rachael

I recollect it was settled by general consent that India was quite a misrepresented country, and had nothing objectionable in it, but a tiger or two, and a little heat in the warm part of the day.

There are strings in the human heart which must never be sounded by another, and drinks that I make myself are those strings in mine.

Aye, though he loved her from his soul with such a self denying love as woman seldom wins; he spoke from first to last of Martin.

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respe

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.

He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-bred man--which he was not. It was mere swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world.

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. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o__lock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.

I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.

Cottage of content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and that where love was, all was.

The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will