“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“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 to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“My advice is, never do to-morrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Trifles make the sum of life. ”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“I had considered how the things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“It was a long and gloomy night that gathered on me, haunted by the ghosts of many hopes, of many dear remembrances, many errors, many unavailing sorrows and regrets.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Try not to associate bodily defect with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“You are too young to know how the world changes everyday,' said Mrs Creakle, 'and how the people in it pass away. But we all have to learn it, David; some of us when we are young, some of us when we are old, some of us at all times in our lives.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“The streets looked small, of course. The streets that we have only seen as children always do I believe when we go back to them”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“We must meet reverses boldly, and not suffer them to frighten us, my dear. We must learn to act the play out. We must live misfortune down, Trot!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“It is no worse, because I write of it. It would be no better, if I stopped my most unwilling hand. Nothing can undo it; nothing can make it otherwise than as it was. ”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“Yes. He is quite a good fellow - nobody's enemy but his own.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“I only know that it was, and ceased to be; and that I have written, and there I leave it.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“These books were a way of escaping from the unhappiness of my life.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“There can't be a quarrel without two parties, and I won't be one. I will be a friend to you in spite of you. So now you know what you've got to expect”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“A display of indifference to all the actions and passions of mankind was not supposed to be such a distinguished quality at that time, I think, as I have observed it to be considered since. I have known it very fashionable indeed. I have seen it displayed with such success, that I have encountered some fine ladies and gentlemen who might as well have been born caterpillars.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“It will be your duty, and it will be your pleasure too to estimate her (as you chose her) by the qualities that she has, and not by the qualities she may not have.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“[W]e talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannise over them too; we are fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well. As we are not particular about the meaning of our liveries on state occassions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so, the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration, if there be but a great parade of them. And as individuals get into trouble by making too great a show of liveries, or as slaves when they are too numerous rise against their masters, so I think I could mention a nation that has got into many great difficulties, and will get into many greater, from maintaining too large a retinue of words.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“This was my only and my constant comfort. When I think of it, the picture always rises in my mind, of a summer evening, the boys at play in the churchyard, and I sitting on my bed, reading as if for life.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“what I want you to be - I don't mean physically but morally: you are very well physically - is a firm fellow, a fine firm fellow, with a will of your own, with resolution. with determination. with strength of character that is not to be influenced except on good reason by anybody, or by anything. That's what I want you to be. That's what your father, & your mother might both have been”
― Charles Dickens, quote from David Copperfield
“The questions are the danger.
Leave them alone and they sleep.
Ask them, awake them, and more than you
know will begin to rise.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“But there is one more reason to protect other species. One seldom if ever mentioned. Perhaps we are the first to talk and think and build and aspire, but we may not be the last. Others may follow us in this adventure. Some day we may be judged by just how well we served, when alone we were Earth’s caretakers.”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“The stars in their infinite peace seemed to pour their healing light into me. I thought of captives in prison, the sick and the suffering from the beginning of time who had looked to these stars for strength. What was my little sorrow to the centuries of pain which those stars had watched? So near they seemed, so compassionate. My bitter hurt seemed to grow small and drop away. If I must go on alone, I should still have silence and the high stars to walk with me.”
― Anzia Yezierska, quote from Bread Givers
“At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion—that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms. Moral”
― Pope Benedict XVI, quote from Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
“She stepped away and considered the couch. “First we have to get this house in order. Would you please move the couch again?” I stared at the couch. I had moved it maybe eight hundred times in the last two days. “Which wall?” She chewed at her thumb, thinking. “Over there.” “That’s where it was two moves ago.” It was a big couch. It probably weighed three thousand pounds. “Yes, but that was when the entertainment center was by the fireplace. Now that we’ve put the entertainment center by the entry, the look will be completely different.” “We?” “Yes. We.” I bent into the couch and dragged it to the opposite wall. Four thousand pounds. I was squaring the couch when the phone rang. Lucy spoke for a minute, then held out the phone. “Joe.” Joe Pike and I are partners in the detective agency that bears my name. He could have his name on it if he wanted, but he doesn’t. He’s like that. I took the phone. “Hernias R Us.” Lucy rolled her eyes and turned away, already contemplating new sofa arrangements.”
― Robert Crais, quote from L.A. Requiem
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
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