90 Charles Dickens Quotes From His Memorable Work

 We have rounded up the best collection of Charles Dickens quotes, sayings, and writings, (with images and pictures) on life, society, love, and education to inspire you big time.

Charles Dickens was an English writer who is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era.

His works gained him extraordinary popularity during his life and later was considered a literary genius by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories are globally read today.

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He was an editor in a weekly journal and has written 15 novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories. He has created some of the best-known fictional characters of all time.

Dickens has powerfully campaigned for children’s rights to education and other social reforms. His intellectual views on society and its shortcomings appealed to the simple and the sophisticated, making him one of the greatest forces in 19th-century literature.

Dickens’s success began with the publication of The Pickwick Papers, published in 19 issues over 20 months, making it a publishing phenomenon. Its success popularized serialized fiction and cliffhanger endings.

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Among Charles Dickens’s many works are the novels Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations. Like many of his works, these novels are also frequently adapted and evoke images of the Victorian era.

Dickens was an influential spokesman of his age and enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime. Here is a list of inspirational quotes from the most famous celebrity of his era, Charles Dickens.

Top 10 Charles Dickens Quotes

  1. “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.” – Charles Dickens                                                                           
    Charles Dickens Quotes
    Charles Dickens Quotes

       


  2. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” – Charles Dickens                           
    Quotes By Charles Dickens
    Quotes By Charles Dickens

  3. “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” – Charles Dickens                                                                                                                                                                       
    Quotes From Charles Dickens
    Quotes From Charles Dickens

  4. “Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” – Charles Dickens                                                                                                                                                                         
    Charles Dickens Famous Quotes
    Charles Dickens Famous Quotes

  5. “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” – Charles Dickens

  6. “My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Charles Dickens

  7. “I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.” – Charles Dickens

  8. “Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

  9. “The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” – Charles Dickens

  10. “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.” – Charles Dickens

Most Famous Quotes By Charles Dickens

He is best known for his historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities, which is considered to be one of the best-selling novels of all time.

The novel has continued to inspire adaptions for film, television, and the stage, and has influenced popular culture.

  1. “Scattered wits take a long time in picking up.” – Charles Dickens

  2. “There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.” – Charles Dickens

  3. “Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.” – Charles Dickens                                           
    Charles Dickens Quotes About Life
    Charles Dickens Quotes About Life

  4. “One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind.” – Charles Dickens

  5. “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Charles Dickens                                     
    Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Quotes
    Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Quotes

  6. “The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.” – Charles Dickens             
    Charles Dickens Quotes On Society
    Charles Dickens Quotes On Society

  7. “Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.” – Charles Dickens

  8. “No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” – Charles Dickens

  9. “I was better after I had cried, than before – more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” – Charles Dickens

  10. “He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart.” – Charles Dickens                                                                                                                                     
    Quotes For Hard Times By Charles Dickens
    Quotes For Hard Times By Charles Dickens

  11. “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.” – Charles Dickens

  12. “In the moonlight which is always sad, as the light of the sun itself is—as the light called human life is—at its coming and its going.” – Charles Dickens

  13. “When the time comes, let loose a tiger and a devil; but wait for the time with the tiger and the devil chained -not shown- yet always ready.” – Charles Dickens

  14. “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens

  15. “Whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.” – Charles Dickens

Best Charles Dickens Quotes

  1. “A word in earnest is as good as a speech.” – Charles Dickens

  2. “Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.” – Charles Dickens

  3. “A very little key will open a very heavy door.” – Charles Dickens

  4. “Life is made of so many partings welded together.” – Charles Dickens

  5. “There are talkers enough among us; I’ll be one of the doers.” – Charles Dickens

  6. “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.” – Charles Dickens

  7. “The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.” – Charles Dickens                                 
    Charles Dickens Quotes Images
    Charles Dickens Quotes Images

  8. “There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.” – Charles Dickens

  9. “There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.” – Charles Dickens

  10. “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” – Charles Dickens

  11. “Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens

  12. “I confess I have yet to learn that a lesson of the purest good may not be drawn from the vilest evil.” – Charles Dickens

  13. “It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.” – Charles Dickens

  14. “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.” – Charles Dickens

  15. “So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.” – Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Quotes About Love & Life

  1. “We forge the chains we wear in life.” – Charles Dickens

  2. “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” – Charles Dickens

  3. “What greater gift than the love of a cat.” – Charles Dickens

  4. “You have been the last dream of my soul.” – Charles Dickens

  5. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens

  6. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Charles Dickens

  7. “And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death.” – Charles Dickens

  8. “Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman.” – Charles Dickens

  9. “Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.” – Charles Dickens

  10. “True love believes everything, and bears everything, and trusts everything.” – Charles Dickens                       
    Charles Dickens Quotes About Love
    Charles Dickens Quotes About Love

  11. “From the death of each day’s hope another hope sprung up to live tomorrow.” – Charles Dickens

  12. “I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” – Charles Dickens

  13. “A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman. A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man.” – Charles Dickens

  14. “Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.” – Charles Dickens

  15. “A thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.” – Charles Dickens

  16. “My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well…” – Charles Dickens

  17. “Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we’d give blood.” – Charles Dickens

  18. “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.” – Charles Dickens

  19. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” – Charles Dickens

  20. “Love her, love her, love her! If she favors you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!” – Charles Dickens

Inspirational Charles Dickens Quotes

  1. “Trifles make the sum of life.” – Charles Dickens

  2. “A multitude of people and yet a solitude.” – Charles Dickens

  3. “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.” – Charles Dickens

  4. “Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.” – Charles Dickens

  5. “Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature.” – Charles Dickens

  6. “Death may beget life, but oppression can beget nothing other than itself.” – Charles Dickens

  7. “There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.” – Charles Dickens

  8. “Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph.” – Charles Dickens

  9. “The world belongs to those who set out to conquer it armed with self-confidence and good humor.” – Charles Dickens

  10. “Good never come of such evil, a happier end was not in nature to so unhappy a beginning.”-  Charles Dickens

  11. “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.” – Charles Dickens

  12. “A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.” – Charles Dickens

  13. “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” – Charles Dickens

  14. “The cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.” – Charles Dickens

  15. “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.” – Charles Dickens

Memorable Quotes From Charles Dickens

  1. “Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast.” – Charles Dickens

  2. “We never tire of the friendships we form with books.” – Charles Dickens


  3. “The worst of all listeners is the man who does nothing but listen.” – Charles Dickens


  4. “There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.” – Charles Dickens


  5. “When you drink of the water, don’t forget the spring from which it flows.” – Charles Dickens


  6. “It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something.” – Charles Dickens


  7. “The habit of paying compliments kept a man’s tongue oiled without any expense.” – Charles Dickens


  8. “Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.” – Charles Dickens


  9. “The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living day after day after terrible day.” – Charles Dickens


  10. “Time and tide will wait for no man, saith the adage. But all men have to wait for time and tide.” – Charles Dickens


  11. “The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.” – Charles Dickens


  12. “I am what you designed me to be. I am your blade. You cannot now complain if you also feel the hurt.” – Charles Dickens


  13. “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” – Charles Dickens


  14. “The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.” – Charles Dickens


  15. “There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.” – Charles Dickens

More About Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens popularly known as Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. He was one of the most popular and prolific writers of the Victorian Era.

Owing to his interest in theatre, Dickens became a professional actor on 1832. In 1833 he began his literary career as a journalist by contributing stories and essays to newspapers and magazines, that were reprinted as Sketches by “Boz”.

These sketches attracted attention and Dickens was invited for a comic serial narrative. Seven weeks later The Pickwick Papers first installment appeared.

Within no time Pickwick gained immense popularity and Dickens became the most popular author of those days.

With few years passing by, Dickens became an international literary celebrity, popular for his satire, humor, and sharp observation of character and society.

Here is a list of famous quotes by Charles Dickens about life, education, and society that are taken from his novels.

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