Quotes from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

'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.'

"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!"

'As I think I told you once before,' said I, 'it is you who have been, in your greed and cunning, against all the world. It may be profitable to you to reflect, in future, that there never were greed and cunning in the world yet, that did not do too much, and overreach themselves. It is as certain as death.'

Anything Steerforth, you could have done anything, reached the stars! Waste, waste. Waste all waste. Life asks more of us: demands it. It is not enough to be talented Steerforth, or beautiful Dora, or even simply loving: yes Mother, or even simply loving. We must be strong or else the gifts that God sends us into the world with will just fade ad wither in the first cold wind that blows on us....the best steel...must go through the fire.

Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!

I think of every little trifle between me and Dora, and feel the truth, that trifles make the sum of life.

The remembrance of that life is fraught with so much pain to me, with so much mental suffering and want of hope, that I have never had the courage even to examine how long I was doomed to lead it. Whether it lasted for a year, or more, or less, I do not know. I only know that it was, and ceased to be; and that I have written, and there I leave it.

Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules.

When this despondency was at its worst, I believed that I should die. Sometimes, I thought that I would like to die at home; and actually turned back on my road, that I might get there soon. At other times, I passed on farther away, -from city to city, seeking I know not what, and trying to leave I know not what behind.

"Come!" said she, accepting the offer of my hand to help her over the fender, and looking wistfully up into my face, 'you know you wouldn't mistrust me, if I was a full-size woman!'
I felt that there was much truth in this; and i felt rather ashamed of myself.
'You are a young man,' she said, nodding. 'Take a word of advice, even from three foot nothing. try not to associate bodily defects with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason." (chapter xxxii)

"I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world."

"It's in vain, Trot, to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present."

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.

"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."

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.

"I find my breath gets short, but it seldom gets longer as a man gets older. I take it as it comes, and make the most of it. That's the best way, ain't it?"

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." Chapter XII

"There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose." Chapter XLV