“I know, both as she would go to the wureld’s furdest end with me, if she could once see me again; and that she would fly to the wureld’s furdest end to keep off seeing me. For though she ain’t no call to doubt my love, and doen’t – and doen’t,” he repeated, with a quiet assurance of the truth of what he said, “there’s shame steps in, and keeps betwixt us.” ~ David Copperfield
“I find my breath gets
“I find my breath gets short, but it seldom gets longer as a man gets older. I take it as it comes, and make the most of it. That’s the best way, ain’t it?” ~ David Copperfield
“Don’t you think that any
“Don’t you think that any secret course is an unworthy one?” ~ David Copperfield
“Judiciously show a cat milk,
“Judiciously show a cat milk, if you wish her to thirst for it. Judiciously show a dog his natural prey, if you wish him to bring it down one day.” ~ A Tale of Two Cities
For it is good to
For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. ~ A Christmas Carol
The shadows of our own
The shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed. ~ Barnaby Rudge
Father Time is not always
Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow’s hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life. ~ Barnaby Rudge
He saw that men who
He saw that men who worked hard, and earned their scanty bread with lives of labour, were cheerful and happy; and that to the most ignorant, the sweet face of Nature was a never-failing source of cheerfulness and joy. He saw those who had been delicately nurtured, and tenderly brought up, cheerful under privations, and superior to suffering, that would have crushed many of a rougher grain, because they bore within their own bosoms the materials of happiness, contentment, and peace. He saw that women, the tenderest and most fragile of all God’s creatures, were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore, in their own hearts, an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotion. Above all, he saw that men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth; and setting all the good of the world against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very decent and respectable sort of world after all. ~ The Pickwick Papers
Surprises, like misfortunes, seldom come
Surprises, like misfortunes, seldom come alone. ~ Oliver Twist
At last, however, he began
At last, however, he began to think — as you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it too. ~ A Christmas Carol