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.
David Copperfield
The narrator David Copperfield, opening
lines of novel, Chapter 1. |
You'll find us rough, sir, but you'll find us ready.
David Copperfield
Mr Peggotty to David, Chapter 3. |
I am a lone lorn creetur and everythink goes contrairy with
me.
David Copperfield
Mrs Gummidge, Chapter 3. |
I'd better to into the house, and die and be a riddance!
David Copperfield
Mrs Gummidge, Chapter 3. |
She's been thinking of the old 'un!
David Copperfield
Mr Peggotty of Mrs Gummidge, Chapter 3. |
Yees. Barkis is willin'.
David Copperfield
Mr Barkis, Chapter 5. |
I live on broken wittles and I sleep on the coals.
David Copperfield
The Waiter, Chapter 5. |
A loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom.
David Copperfield
Chapter 9. Often quoted as "A loving
heart is the truest wisdom". |
"David," said Mr. Murdstone, "to the young
this is a world for action; not for moping and droning in."
David Copperfield
Chapter 10. |
When I lived at home with papa and mama, I really should have
hardly understood what the word meant, in the sense in which
I now employ it, but experientia does it, as papa used
to say.
David Copperfield
Mrs Micawber, Chapter 11. |
I have known him come home for 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 bowwindows
to the house, "in case anything turned up," which
was his favorite expression.
David Copperfield
Of Mr Micawber, Chapter 11. |
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen
and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
David Copperfield
Mr Micawber's advice to David Copperfield,
Chapter 12. |
I never will desert Mr. Micawber.
David Copperfield
Mrs Micawber, Chapter 12. |
It's a mad world. Mad as Bedlam, boy.
David Copperfield
Mr Dick, Chapter 14. |
How could the people about him have made that mistake of putting
some of the trouble out of his head, after it was taken off,
into mine?
David Copperfield
Mr Dick on the beheaded King Charles I,
whose demons he believes have possessed him, Chapter 14. |
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
The Memorial is Mr Dick's autobiography,
Chapter 14. |
"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."
David Copperfield
Chapter 15. |
We live in a numble abode.
David Copperfield
Uriah Heep, Chapter 16. |
We are so very 'umble.
David Copperfield
Uriah Heep, Chapter 17. |
I only ask for information.
David Copperfield
Miss Rosa Dartle, Chapter 20. |
"It was as true," said Mr. Barkis, "as turnips
is. It was as true," said Mr. Barkis, nodding his nightcap,
which was his only means of emphasis, "as taxes is. And
nothing's truer than them."
David Copperfield
Chapter 21. |
What a world of gammon and spinach it is, though, ain't it!
David Copperfield
Miss Mowcher, Chapter 22. |
He is quite a good fellow nobody's enemy but his own.
David Copperfield
Mr Waterbrook of Tommy Traddles, Chapter
25. |
Other things are all very well in their way, but give me Blood!
David Copperfield
Mr Waterbrook, agreeing with his wife who
repreatedly says that if she has a weakeness it is Blood, Chapter
25. |
I assure you she is the dearest girl.
David Copperfield
Mr Traddles of his fiance, Chapter 27. |
Accidents will occur in the best regulated families.
David Copperfield
Mr Micawber to David Copperfield, Chapter
27. |
He told me, only the other day, that it was provided for.
That was Mr Micawber's expression, "Provided for."
David Copperfield
Mr Traddles, Chapter 28. |
Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do,
but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!
David Copperfield
James Steerforth to David, Chapter 28. |
A long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether, my
hearties, hurrah!
David Copperfield
Mr Omer, Chapter 30. |
"People can't die along the coast" said Mr Peggotty,
"except when the tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be
born, unless it's pretty nigh in not properly born, till
flood. He's a going out with the tide."
David Copperfield
Mr Peggotty explains to David, by the dying
Barkis's bedside, Chapter 30. |