Book of Quotes

Great Expectations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

- "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."

- "Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle."

- "We need never be ashamed of our tears."

- "Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!"

- "In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong."

- "I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."

- "Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since – on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to displace with your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!"

- "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."

- "The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection."

- "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 broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day."

- "Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies."

- "Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade."

- "I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape."

- "So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."

- "You are in every line I have ever read."

- "It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

- "Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule."