Charles Dickens

'No one is useless in this world,' retorted the Secretary, 'who lightens the burden of it for any one else.'

We must scrunch or be scrunched.

That's the state to live and die in!...R-r-rich!

"And if it's proud to have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts," Miss Jenny struck in, flushed, "she is proud."

I don't care whether I am a Minx or a Sphinx.

I want to be something so much worthier than the doll in the doll's house.

He do the Police in different voices.

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

Money and goods are certainly the best of references.

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.

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.

You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then.

Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together...

Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.

Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman.

I revere the memory of Mr. F. as an estimable man and most indulgent husband, only necessary to mention Asparagus and it appeared or to hint at any little delicate thing to drink and it came like magic in a pint bottle; it was not ecstasy …

A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs, to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of …

The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. They were dispersed all over the public offices, and held all sorts of public places. Either the nation was under a load of obligation to the Barnacles, or the Barnacles were …

Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving — HOW NOT TO DO IT.

I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything; for whom what could not be weighed, measured, and priced, had no existence.

There is a wisdom of the Head, and … there is a wisdom of the Heart.

... 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.

"Time was," he said, "when it was well to watch even your rising little star, and know in what quarter there were clouds, to shadow you if needful. But a planet has arisen, and you are lost in its light."