55 Charles Dickens Quotes on Self-Worth, Love, and More

By Sckylar Gibby-Brown | Published February 25, 2021

This handpicked selection of Charles Dickens quotes will remind you to keep your eyes open, your heart full, and your mind wise.

Charles Dickens was a writer in Victoria era England.

Both because of the advancing technologies of his time and the style with which he wrote, Dickens was widely popular with both the lower, middle, and upper classes of his society.

An extremely intelligent individual, Dickens was able to use his position as a popular writer to bring about social reform.

Many of his works included themes that exposed the laws against working class society and expressed social protest and a desire for change.

What have you learned from Charles Dickens?

Dickens’ works are still popular today.

You likely have read A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist in school, or you may have seen a play or screen adaptation of A Christmas Carol during the holidays.

Below is our collection of Charles Dickens quotes about life, self-worth, and love.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Charles Dickens quotes about life

1. “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” – Charles Dickens

2. “Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.” –Charles Dickens

3. “I wear the chain I forged in life…. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” – Charles Dickens

4. “Throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people we most despise.” –Charles Dickens

5. “Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.” –Charles Dickens

6. “Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature.” –Charles Dickens

7. “Gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal.” – Charles Dickens

8. “The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.”― Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens quotes about self-worth

9. “I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine; the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.” – Charles Dickens

10. “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape.” –Charles Dickens

11. “We need never be ashamed of our tears.” – Charles Dickens

12. “My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to I have devoted myself completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.” – Charles Dickens
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13. “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” –Charles Dickens

14. “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” – Charles Dickens

15. “Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed.” – Charles Dickens

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Wise Charles Dickens quotes

16. “Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.” – Charles Dickens

17. “I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies!”- Charles Dickens

18. “Grief never mended no broken bones.” – Charles Dickens

19. “Train up a fig-tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade of it.” –Charles Dickens

20. “If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.” – Charles Dickens
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21. “Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” ― Charles Dickens

22. “There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.” – Charles Dickens

23. “Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.” –Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens quotes to enlighten you

24. “There are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk.” –Charles Dickens

25. “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.”- Charles Dickens

26. “The things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished.”― Charles Dickens

27. “What a fine thing capital punishment is! Dead men never repent; dead men never bring awkward stories to light. The prospect of the gallows, too, makes them hardy and bold. Ah, it’s a fine thing for the trade! Five of them strung up in a row, and none left to play booty or turn white-livered!” ― Charles Dickens

28. “It is a hopeless endeavor to attract people to a theatre unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in.” –Charles Dickens

29. “To do a great right, you may do a little wrong; and you may take any means which the end to be attained will justify.” ― Charles Dickens

30. Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. ” – Charles Dickens

31. “There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.” – Charles Dickens

32. “Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.” –Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens quotes about love

33. “No one is useless in this world … who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.” –Charles Dickens

34. “There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.” – Charles Dickens

35. “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.” ― Charles Dickens

36. “Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman.” ― Charles Dickens

37. “In a word, it was impossible for me to separate her, in the past or in the present, from the innermost life of my life.” ― Charles Dickens

38. “I’ll tell you … what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter — as I did!.”― Charles Dickens

39. “Family not only needs to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also of those whom we’d give blood.” – Charles Dickens

40. “A loving heart is the truest wisdom. ” Charles Dickens

41. “The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living day after day after terrible day. ” – Charles Dickens

42. “There is a wisdom of the head, and… there is a wisdom of the heart. “- Charles Dickens

43. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. ” –Charles Dickens

44. “I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world. ” – Charles Dickens

45. “Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.” – Charles Dickens

More Charles Dickens quotes

46. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” – Charles Dickens

47. “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” – Charles Dickens

48. “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” – Charles Dickens

49. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” – Charles Dickens

50. “And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death.” – Charles Dickens

51. “What greater gift than the love of a cat.” – Charles Dickens

52. “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Charles Dickens

53. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens

54. “To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.” – Charles Dickens

55. “I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.” – Charles Dickens

Did you learn anything from these Charles Dickens quotes?

Though Charles Dickens grew up poor, he went on to become one of the wealthiest authors of his time.

Despite his success, however, Dickens remained compassionate towards all people, regardless of class.

During a time of great social distress, Dickens brought a voice to the people by writing about corrupt government, working class conditions, and societal unrest.

Eventually, his writings contributed to social change.

Let these Charles Dickens quotes remind you to keep your eyes open, your heart full, and your mind wise.