Heaven above was blue, and earth beneath was green; the river glistened like a path of diamonds in the sun; the birds poured forth their songs from the shady trees; the lark soared high above the waving corn; and the deep buzz of insects filled the air. ~ Nicholas Nickleby
This fine young man had
This fine young man had all the inclination to be a profligate of the first water, and only lacked the one good trait in the common catalogue of debauched vices — open-handedness — to be a notable vagabond. But there his griping and penurious habits stepped in; and as one poison will sometimes neutralise another, when wholesome remedies would not avail, so he was restrained by a bad passion from quaffing his full measure of evil, when virtue might have sought to hold him back in vain. ~ Martin Chuzzlewit
Its matter was not new
“Its matter was not new to me, but was presented in a new aspect. It shook me in my habit – the habit of nine-tenths of the world – of believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it.” ~ Dombey and Son
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!
Up the two terrace flights
Up the two terrace flights of steps the rain ran wildly, and beat at the great door, like a swift messenger rousing those within. ~ A Tale of Two Cities
very up-hill and down-hill
I had a latent impression that there was something decidedly fine in Mr. Wopsle’s elocution – not for old associations’ sake, I am afraid, but because it was very slow, very dreary, very up-hill and down-hill, and very unlike any way in which any man in any natural circumstances of life or death ever expressed himself about anything. ~ Great Expectations
a man must take
“Lord bless you!” said Mr. Omer, resuming his pipe, “a man must take the fat with the lean; that’s what he must make up his mind to, in this life. ” ~ David Copperfield
Here’s the rule for bargains
“Here’s the rule for bargains. ‘Do other men, for they would do you.’ That’s the true business precept.” ~ Martin Chuzzlewit
My comfort is said Susan
“My comfort is,” said Susan, looking back at Mr. Dombey, “that I have told a piece of truth this day which ought to have been told long before and can’t be told too often or too plain.” ~ Dombey and Son
Huge knots of sea-weed hung
Huge knots of sea-weed hung upon the jagged and pointed stones, trembling in every breath of wind; and the green ivy clung mournfully round the dark and ruined battlements. Behind it rose the ancient castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its own might and strength, as when, seven hundred years ago, it rang with the clash of arms, or resounded with the noise of feasting and revelry. ~ The Pickwick Papers
