Timeless Quotes on Life, Society, and Humanity
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair.
— Charles Dickens
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
— Charles Dickens
Crush humanity out of shape once more,
under similar hammers,
and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms.
Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again,
and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
— Charles Dickens
The child was pale and thin;
his cheeks were sunken,
and his eyes large and bright.
The cold, bleak wind seemed to have chilled him, and the damp air to have penetrated to his bones. Yet there was something in his look, despite all this,
which touched even the roughest hearts.
— Charles Dickens
The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men;
and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse,
they found out at once,
what ordinary folks would never have discovered, that the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes. — Charles Dickens
Oliver was precisely in that state of mind
which happens once and never again
in a boy’s life;
the state of mind in which a child
is truly happy.
He was surrounded by friends,
and basked in the sunshine of kindness
and affection.
— Charles Dickens
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
Let us remember what we are,
and what we have been,
and what we might have been,
and what we are.
Let us be grateful,
for what we have received,
and humble in what we hope.
— Charles Dickens
There are dark shadows on the earth,
but its lights are stronger in the contrast.
If we were not so single-minded
about our own selves,
we should be much more careful
of the happiness of others.
The heart that feels most,
lives the most.
— Charles Dickens