“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
That vague kind of penitence
That vague kind of penitence which holidays awaken next morning . . . ~ The Old Curiosity Shop
“It’s not put into his
“It’s not put into his head to be buried. It’s put into his head to be made useful. You hold your life on the condition that to the last you shall struggle hard for it. Every man holds a discovery on the same terms.” ~ Little Dorrit
Her look at her father,
Her look at her father, half admiring him and proud of him, half ashamed for him, all devoted and loving, went to his inmost heart. ~ Little Dorrit
There was not one straight
There was not one straight floor from the foundation to the roof; the ceilings were so fantastically clouded by smoke and dust, that old women might have told fortunes in them better than in grouts of tea. ~ Little Dorrit
The wide stare stared itself
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
He had a certain air
He had a certain air of being a handsome man–which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-bred man–which he was not. It was mere swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world. ~ Little Dorrit
“She had gained a reputation
“She had gained a reputation for beauty, and (which is often another thing) was beautiful.” ~ Little Dorrit
It was the momentary yielding
It was the momentary yielding of a nature that had been disappointed from the dawn of its perceptions, but had not quite given up all its hopeful yearnings yet. ~ Little Dorrit
He did each single thing,
He did each single thing, as if he did nothing else. ~ Dombey and Son
