Inspiration Quotes, page 122

“Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend, will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof shuts out the sky.”

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.”

“Such is hope, heaven's own gift to struggling mortals, pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad.”

“Quadruped lions are said to be savage only when they are hungry; biped lions are rarely sulky longer than when their appetite for distinction remains unappeased.”

“Poverty and oysters always seem to go together.”

“For your popular rumour, unlike the rolling stone of the proverb, is one which gathers a deal of moss in its wanderings up and down.”

“Pause, you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

“The civility which money will purchase is rarely extended to those who have none.”

“A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a little patronage more so.”

“Never say never.”

“I wear the chain I forged in life, replied the ghost. 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.”

“He was touched in the cavity where his heart should have been, in that nest of addled eggs, where the birds of heaven would have lived if they had not been whistled away, by the fervour of this reproach.”

“It was the first time it had ever occurred to me, that this detestable cant of false humility might have originated out of the Heep family. I had seen the harvest, but had never thought of the seed.”

“When I have heard him talking to Papa during the sittings for the picture, I have sat wondering whether it could be that he has no belief in anybody else, because he has no belief in himself.”

“Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.”

“Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.”

“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”

“I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything.”

“In the moonlight, which is always sad, as the light of the sun itself is — as the light called human life is — at its coming and its going.”

“You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them. Stick to facts, sir.”

“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens the temper; so cry away.”

“I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.”

“Man, said the Ghost, if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”

“Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism are all very good words for the lips.”

“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

“"I don't know what day of the month it is!" said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I've been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop!"”

“Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.”

“I will die here where I have walked. And I will walk here, though I am in my grave. I will walk here until the pride of this house is humbled.”

“Radical hope anticipates a good for which those who have the hope as yet lack the appropriate concepts with which to understand it.”

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”