The wide stare stared itself out for one while; the Sun went down in a red, green, golden glory; the stars came out in the heavens, and the fire-flies mimicked them in the lower air, as men may feebly imitate the goodness of a better order of beings; the long dusty roads and the interminable plains were in repose–and so deep a hush was on the sea, that it scarcely whispered of the time when it shall give up its dead. ~ Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit Quotes
The Marshalsea debtors’ prison plays a large part in Little Dorrit. Few people knew that Dickens’s father had been sent to Marshalsea for three months. We hope you enjoy this collection of 51 quotes from Little Dorrit.
No public business of any
No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. ~ Little Dorrit
Whatever was required to be
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. ~ Little Dorrit
“Rattle me out of bed
“Rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. Keep me always at it, and I’ll keep you always at it, you keep somebody else always at it. There you are with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country.” ~ Little Dorrit
It is not easy to
It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something. ~ Little Dorrit
Affery, like greater people, had
Affery, like greater people, had always been right in her facts, and always wrong in the theories she deduced from them. ~ Little Dorrit
“She had gained a reputation
“She had gained a reputation for beauty, and (which is often another thing) was beautiful.” ~ Little Dorrit
All through dinner, Flora combined
All through dinner, Flora combined her present appetite for eating and drinking with her past appetite for romantic love, in a way that made Clennam afraid to lift his eyes from his plate; since he could not look towards her without receiving some glance of mysterious meaning or warning, as if they were engaged in a plot. ~ Little Dorrit
Upon the purple tree-tops far
Upon the purple tree-tops far away, and on the green height near at hand up which the shades were slowly creeping, there was an equal hush. Between the real landscape and its shadow in the water, there was no division; both were so untroubled and clear, and, while so fraught with solemn mystery of life and death, so hopefully reassuring to the gazer’s soothed heart, because so tenderly and mercifully beautiful. ~ Little Dorrit
“O, Mrs. Clennam, Mrs. Clennam,”
“O, Mrs. Clennam, Mrs. Clennam,” said Little Dorrit, “angry feelings and unforgiving deeds are no comfort and no guide to you and me.” ~ Little Dorrit
