The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (137 page)

Dibdin, Thomas
1771–1841

1
Oh! what a snug little Island,
A right little, tight little Island!

"The Snug Little Island" (1833)

 
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Dickens, Charles
1812–70

1
Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the Court, perennially hopeless.

Bleak House
(1853) ch. 1

2
This is a London particular…A fog, miss.

Bleak House
(1853) ch. 3

3
I call them the Wards in Jarndyce. They are caged up with all the others. With Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach!
Miss Flite's birds

Bleak House
(1853) ch. 60

4
"Bah," said Scrooge. "Humbug!"

A Christmas Carol
(1843) stave 1

5
I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

A Christmas Carol
(1843) stave 2

6
"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim.

A Christmas Carol
(1843) stave 3

7
I am a lone lorn creetur … and everythink goes contrairy with me.
Mrs Gummidge

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 3

8
Barkis is willin'.

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 5

9
I have known him come home to supper with a flood of tears, and a declaration that nothing was now left but a jail; and go to bed making a calculation of the expense of putting bow-windows to the house, "in case anything turned up," which was his favourite expression.
of Mr Micawber

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 11

10
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.
Mr Micawber

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 12

11
Mr. Dick had been for upwards of ten years endeavouring to keep King Charles the First out of the Memorial; but he had been constantly getting into it, and was there now.

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 14

12
We are so very 'umble.
Uriah Heep

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 17

13
It was as true…as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.
Mr Barkis

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 21

14
What a world of gammon and spinnage it is, though, ain't it!
Miss Mowcher

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 22

15
Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 28 (Mr Micawber)

16
It's only my child-wife.
of Dora

David Copperfield
(1850) ch. 44

17
None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead—stone dead—and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoul.

Dombey and Son
(1848) ch. 11

18
When found, make a note of.
Captain Cuttle

Dombey and Son
(1848) ch. 15

19
What the waves were always saying.

Dombey and Son
(1848) title of ch. 16

20
"He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy," said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out.

Great Expectations
(1861) ch. 8

21
Her bringing me up by hand, gave her no right to bring me up by jerks.

Great Expectations
(1861) ch. 8

22
Now, what I want is, Facts…Facts alone are wanted in life.
Mr Gradgrind

Hard Times
(1854) bk. 1, ch. 1

23
Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving—
how not to do it
.

Little Dorrit
(1857) bk. 1, ch. 10

24
There's milestones on the Dover Road!
Mr F.'s Aunt

Little Dorrit
(1857) bk. 1, ch. 23

25
The word Papa, besides, gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism, are all very good words for the lips: especially prunes and prism.
Mrs General

Little Dorrit
(1857) bk. 2, ch. 5

26
He'd make a lovely corpse.
Mrs Gamp

Martin Chuzzlewit
(1844) ch. 25

27
The words she spoke of Mrs Harris, lambs could not forgive…nor worms forget.
Mrs Gamp

Martin Chuzzlewit
(1844) ch. 49

28
education
.—At Mr Wackford Squeers's Academy, Dotheboys Hall, at the delightful village of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, Youth are boarded, clothed, booked, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra, single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic, fortification, and every other branch of classical literature. Terms, twenty guineas per annum. No extras, no vacations, and diet unparalleled.

Nicholas Nickleby
(1839) ch. 3

29
He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two.
Mr Squeers

Nicholas Nickleby
(1839) ch. 4

30
C-l-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this out of the book, he goes and does it.
Mr Squeers

Nicholas Nickleby
(1839) ch. 8

31
Language was not powerful enough to describe the infant phenomenon.

Nicholas Nickleby
(1839) ch. 23

32
All is gas and gaiters.
The Gentleman in the Small-clothes

Nicholas Nickleby
(1839) ch. 49

33
Please, sir, I want some more.
Oliver

Oliver Twist
(1838) ch. 2

34
Known by the
sobriquet
of "The artful Dodger".

Oliver Twist
(1838) ch. 8

35
"If the law supposes that," said Mr Bumble…"the law is a ass—a idiot."
Bumble

Oliver Twist
(1838) ch. 51.

36
I think…that it is the best club in London.
Mr Twemlow, on the House of Commons

Our Mutual Friend
(1865) bk. 2, ch. 3

37
I want to be something so much worthier than the doll in the doll's house.
Bella

Our Mutual Friend
(1865) bk. 4, ch. 5

38
Kent, sir—everybody knows Kent—apples, cherries, hops, and women.
Jingle

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 2

39
I wants to make your flesh creep.
The Fat Boy

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 8

40
"It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do." "But suppose there are two mobs?" suggested Mr Snodgrass. "Shout with the largest," replied Mr Pickwick.

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 13

41
Be wery careful o' vidders all your life.
Mr Weller

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 20

42
"Do you spell it with a "V” or a "W”?" inquired the judge. "That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord," replied Sam [Weller].

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 34

43
"You must not tell us what the soldier, or any other man, said, sir," interposed the judge; "it's not evidence."

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 34

44
The have-his-carcase, next to the perpetual motion, is vun of the blessedest things as wos ever made.
Sam Weller

Pickwick Papers
(1837) ch. 43

45
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

A Tale of Two Cities
(1859) bk. 1, ch. 1

46
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.
Sydney Carton's thoughts on the scaffold

A Tale of Two Cities
(1859) bk. 3, ch. 15

 
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