I remembered her, from that instant, only as the young mother of my earliest impressions, who had been used to wind her bright curls round and round her finger, and to dance with me at twilight in the parlour. . . . It may be curious, but it is true. In her death she winged her way back to her calm untroubled youth, and cancelled all the rest. ~ David Copperfield
Death Quotes
Here is a collection of quotes about death written by Charles Dickens.
The boy was lying, fast
The boy was lying, fast asleep, on a rude bed upon the floor; so pale with anxiety, and sadness, and the closeness of his prison, that he looked like death; not death as it shows in shroud and coffin, but in the guise it wears when life has just departed; when a young and gentle spirit has, but an instant, fled to Heaven, and the gross air of the world has not had time to breathe upon the changing dust it hallowed. ~ Oliver Twist
You Could Draw Me to Fire
“You know what I am going to say. I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace. This and the confusion of my thoughts, so that I am fit for nothing, is what I mean by your being the ruin of me. But if you would return a favourable answer to my offer of myself in marriage, you could draw me to any good–every good–with equal force. ~ Our Mutual Friend
More About this Quote
This quote is from Our Mutual Friend, the last novel that Dickens completed before his death.
In the novel, Bradley Headstone says the above to Lizzie Hexam.
Headstone is a schoolmaster. Lizzie is the daughter of a waterman who makes his living by finding and retrieving dead bodies from the Thames.
The gap between Headstone’s and Lizzie’s social stations is huge. However, there is another issue that torments Bradley Headstone.
Lizzie loves someone else!
Charles Darnay seemed to stand
Charles Darnay seemed to stand in a company of the dead. Ghosts all! The ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride, the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of wit, the ghost of youth, the ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were changed by the death they had died in coming there. ~ A Tale of Two Cities
“How could you give me
“How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death?” ~ Hard Times
So, she leaning on her
So, she leaning on her husband’s arm, they turned homeward by a rosy path which the gracious sun struck out for them in its setting. And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death. And O what a bright old song it is, that O ’tis love, ’tis love, ’tis love that makes the world go round! ~ Our Mutual Friend
As to what I dare
“As to what I dare, I’m a old bird now, as has dared all manner of traps since first he was fledged, and I’m not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow. If there’s Death hid inside of it, there is, and let him come out, and I’ll face him, and then I’ll believe in him and not afore. ” ~ Great Expectations
“It is required of every
“It is required of every man,” the ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.” ~ A Christmas Carol
The jovial party broke up
The jovial party broke up next morning. Breakings-up are capital things in our school-days, but in after life they are painful enough. Death, self-interest, and fortune’s changes, are every day breaking up many a happy group, and scattering them far and wide; and the boys and girls never come back again. ~ The Pickwick Papers
Never Never Before Heaven
"Never, never, before Heaven, have I thought of you but as the single, bright, pure, blessed recollection of my boyhood and my youth. Never have I from the first, and never shall I to the last, regard your part in my life, but as something sacred, never to be lightly thought of, never to be esteemed enough, never, until death, to be forgotten." ~ Dombey and Son
