It sometimes helps to look to the literary greats for inspiration and help, so we’ve gathered some Charles Dickens quotes that apply to the daily life of a teacher. Feel free to copy them out on a post-it and stick them to your laptop for daily reminder of how fantastic you are!
Famous Charles Dickens quotes
1. “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.”
A Tale of Two Cities
2. “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”
Our Mutual Friend
3. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
A Tale of Two Cities
4. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.”
Nicholas Nickleby
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
5. “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”
A Christmas Carol
6. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
Our Mutual Friend
7. “We need never be ashamed of our tears.”
Great Expectations
8. “The most important thing in life is to stop saying, ‘I wish’ and start saying, ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.”
David Copperfield
9. “Please sir, I want some more.”
Oliver Twist
10. “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...”
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens fact file
Born: 7th February 1812
Place of birth: Hampshire, England
Published books: At least 19
Died: 9th June 1870 (aged 58)
Four fun facts:
- Worked as a reporter covering politics in the 1830s.
- Many of Dickens novels were initially published as weekly or monthly instalments.
- He setup a rehabilitation home for “fallen women” like the homeless or ex-prisoners.
- His first works were published under the pseudonym “Boz.”
11. “There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
Oliver Twist
12. “Family not only needs to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also of those whom we’d give blood.”
Mugby Junction
13. “Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies.”
Great Expectations
14. “It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.”
Oliver Twist
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
15. “Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast.”
Martin Chuzzlewit
16. “Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman.”
Our Mutual Friend
17. “There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.”
The Pickwick Papers
18. “There is a wisdom of the head and wisdom of the heart.”
Hard Times
19. “A word in earnest is as good as a speech.”
Bleak House
“There is a wisdom of the head and wisdom of the heart.”
20. “One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind.”
Little Dorrit
21. “Trifles make the sum of life.”
Great Expectations