Quotes from Martin Chuzzlewit

“He would make a lovely corpse.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“[S]he stood for some moments gazing at the sisters, with affection beaming in one eye, and calculation shining out of the other.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“if I was a painter, and was to paint the American Eagle, how should I do it?...I should want to draw it like a Bat, for its short-sightedness; like a Bantam. for its bragging; like a Magpie, for its honesty; like a Peacock, for its vanity; like an Ostrich, for putting its head in the mud, and thinking nobody sees it -' ...'And like a Phoenix, for its power of springing from the ashes of its faults and vices, and soaring up anew into the sky!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“The weather being hot, he had no cravat, and wore his shirt collar wide open; so that every time he spoke something was seen to twitch and jerk up in his throat, like the little hammers in a harpsichord when the notes are struck. Perhaps it was the Truth feebly endeavouring to leap to his lips. If so, it never reached them.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Mr Pinch accordingly, after turning over the leaves of his book with as much care as if they were living and highly cherished creatures, made his own selection, and began to read.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“The loveliest things in life are but shadows; they come and go, and change and fade away…”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“The privileges of the side-table included the small prerogatives of sitting next to the toast, and taking two cups of tea to other people's one.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“When she spoke, Tom held his breath, so eagerly he listened; when she sang, he sat like one entranced. She touched his organ, and from that bright epoch even it, the old companion of his happiest hours, incapable as he had thought of elevation, began a new and deified existence.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Let us take heed how we laugh without reason, lest we cry with it.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Aye, though he loved her from his soul with such a self denying love as woman seldom wins; he spoke from first to last of Martin.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“At length it became high time to remember the first clause of that great discovery made by the ancient philosopher, for securing health, riches, and wisdom; the infallibility of which has been for generations verified by the enormous fortunes constantly amassed by chimney-sweepers and other persons who get up early and go to bed betimes.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“With a leer of mingled sweetness and slyness; with one eye on the future, one on the bride, and an arch expression in her face, partly spiritual, partly spirituous, and wholly professional and peculiar to her art; Mrs Gamp rummaged in her pocket again [...]”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Martin knew nothing about America, or he would have known perfectly well that if its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body, they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Go ye, who rest so placidly upon the sacred Bard who had been young, and when he strung his harp was old, and had never seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging their bread; go, Teachers of content and honest pride, into the mine, the mill, the forge, the squalid depths of deepest ignorance, and uttermost abyss of man's neglect, and say can any hopeful plant spring up in air so foul that it extinguishes the soul's bright torch as fast as it is kindled!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Ah, that 'if.' But it's of no use to despond. I can but do that, when I have tried everything and failed, and even then it won't serve me much.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“His shoes looked too large; his sleeve looked too long; his hair looked too limp; his features looked too mean; his exposed throat looked as if a halter would have done it good.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“His high spiced wares were made to sell, and they sold; and his thousands of readers could as rationally charge their delight in filth upon him, as a glutton can shift upon his cook the responsibility of his beastly excess.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“There is nothing I would not have given you to have had you deserve my old opinion of you; nothing!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Some people likened him to a direction-post, which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes there; but these were his enemies, the shadows cast by his brightness; that was all.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Martin took the same course, thinking as he went, that perhaps the free and independent citizens, who in their moral elevation, owned the colonel for their master, might render better homage to the goddess, Liberty, in nightly dreams upon the oven of a Russian Serf.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Respect! I believe young people are quick enough to observe and imitate; and why or how should they respect whom no one else respects, and everybody slights?”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“My meaning is, that no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Are pistols with revolving barrels, sword-sticks, bowie-knives, and such things, Institutions on which you pride yourselves? Are bloody duels, brutal combats, savage assaults, shooting down and stabbing in the streets, your Institutions! Why, I shall hear next that Dishonour and Fraud are among the Institutions of the great republic!' The”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“What is substantially true of families in this respect, is true of a whole commonwealth.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“A bargain,' said the son. 'Here's the rule for bargains -"Do other men, for they would do you." That's the true business precept. All others are counterfeits.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“But before he composed himself for a nap, Mr Pecksniff delivered a kind of grace after meat, in these words: 'The process of digestion, as I have been informed by anatomical friends, is one of the most wonderful works of nature. I do not know how it may be with others, but it is a great satisfaction to me to know, when regaling on my humble fare, that I am putting in motion the most beautiful machinery with which we have any acquaintance. I really feel at such times as if I was doing a public service. When I have wound myself up, if I may employ such a term,' said Mr Pecksniff with exquisite tenderness, 'and know that I am Going, I feel that in the lesson afforded by the works within me, I am a Benefactor to my Kind!' As nothing”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“He's enough to turn the very beer in the casks sour with his looks; he is! So he would, if it had judgment enough.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“There's the sweetest little organ there you ever heard. I play it for them.' 'Indeed?' said Martin. 'It is hardly worth the trouble, I should think. What do you get for that, now?' 'Nothing,' answered Tom. 'Well,' returned his friend, 'you ARE a very strange fellow!”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“Martin knew nothing about America, or he would have known perfectly well that if its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

“no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades.' 'Ha,”
― Charles Dickens, quote from Martin Chuzzlewit

About the author

Popular quotes

“...in an infinite universe, anything that could be imagined might somewhere exist.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Dead and Alive

“Long ago, I believed that, given a choice, peple would turn to good as they would turn to light. I believed that reporting-honest, unflinching pictutes of the truth-could be a becon to lead us to deamand that worongs be righted, injustices puniches, and the weak and inncoent cared for. I must have believed, when I started out, that the shoulder of public opinion could be put up against the door of public indifference and would, when given the proper direction, shove it wide with the power of wanting to stand on the side of angel. (Frances Bard)”
― Sarah Blake, quote from The Postmistress

“Tugovati znači vidjeti samo ono što vam je oduzeto. Slavljenje života znači prepoznati sve čime smo blagoslovljeni i osjećati zahvalnost.”
― Ajahn Brahm, quote from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties

“And round and round and round. Why couldn't I get past the letter? Like poison id had seeped into every image and every memory I kept of Callum, polluting them until I couldn't tell which was real and what was just wishful thinking any more. Until at last, I was forced to face the inescapable fact that, for whatever reason, Callum had written the letter.”
― Malorie Blackman, quote from Knife Edge

“Nancy thought Bean was a pain and a pest. Bean thought Nancy was a booger-head.”
― Annie Barrows, quote from Ivy and Bean

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.