Charles Dickens had a true way with words. He is one of the best novelists in history. Whether it’s Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol, there’s a chance you’ve read a piece of his work. To get a true sense of this author, and don’t have time to read a whole book, Charles Dickens quotes are a quick way to do so.
Keep reading to discover the best Charles Dickens Quotes all in one place…
Charles Dickens Quotes from Himself
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“Well, the work is hard, the climate is hard, the life is hard: but so far the gain is enormous.”
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“An author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever.”
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“I write because I can’t help it.”
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“If I were soured [on writing], I should still try to sweeten the lives and fancies of others; but I am not—not at all.”
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“Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.”
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“Literature cannot be too faithful to the people, cannot too ardently advocate the cause of their advancement, happiness and prosperity.”
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“Nobody has done more harm in this single generation than everybody can mend in 10 generations.”
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“Who that has ever reflected on the enormous and vast amount of leave-taking there is in life can ever have doubted the existence of another?”
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“I never knew what it was to feel disgust and contempt, till I traveled in America.”
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“My great ambition is to live in the hearts and homes of home-loving people, and to be connected with the truth of the truthful English life.”
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“The English are, as far as I know, the hardest worked people on whom the sun shines. Be content if in their wretched intervals of leisure they read for amusement and do no worse.”
Charles Dickens Quotes from His Novels
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“There are talkers enough among us; I’ll be one of the doers.” —Barnaby Rudge
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“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” —David Copperfield
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“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.” —A Christmas Carol
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“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
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“It is an old prerogative of kings to govern everything but their passions.” —The Pickwick Papers
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“From the death of each day’s hope another hope sprung up to live to-morrow.” —The Old Curiosity Shop
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“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” —Great Expectations
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“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 completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.” —David Copperfield
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“Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we’d give blood.” —Nicholas Nickleby
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“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” —Nicholas Nickleby
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“In the majority of cases, conscience is an elastic and very flexible article.” —The Old Curiosity Shop
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“Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.” —The Old Curiosity Shop
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“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.” —Great Expectations
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“It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.” —Bleak House
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“But, tears were not the things to find their way to Mr. Bumble’s soul; his heart was waterproof.” —Oliver Twist
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“But injustice breeds injustice; the fighting with shadows and being defeated by them necessitates the setting up of substances to combat.” —Bleak House
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“Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast.” —Martin Chuzzlewit
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“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.” —The Pickwick Papers
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“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.” —Great Expectations
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“It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.” —Oliver Twist
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“A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away—the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us—is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.” —The Pickwick Papers
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“There are chords in the human heart—strange, varying strings—which are only struck by accident; which will remain mute and senseless to appeals the most passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the slightest casual touch.” —The Old Curiosity Shop
From drama to humor, Charles Dickens brought it all to paper. His works have inspired movies and TV, and will for history to come.
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