Happy Birthday to Charles Dickens

Today is the 200 hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Born this day in 1812, he only lived to be 58 years old, dying from the effects of a number of cerebrovascular accidents.

He said a great many things of importance in his life.

Here are a few of my favorites:

“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.”

“A boy’s story is the best that is ever told.”  

“There is a wisdom of the head, and… a wisdom of the heart.”                     

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”                      

“Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances… in short, by the influence of woman, in the lofty character of wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.”           

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

“An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.”

“Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust.”

“The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy, walk and be healthy. ‘The best of all ways to lengthen our days” is not, as Mr. Thomas Moore has it, “to steal a few hours from night, my love;” but, with leave be it spoken, to walk steadily and with a purpose. The wandering man knows of certain ancients, far gone in years, who have staved off infirmities and dissolution by earnest walking,–hale fellows close upon eighty and ninety, but brisk as boys.”

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

“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.”                                    

“Every human creature is a profound secret and mystery to every other.”

“Every man, however obscure, however far removed from the general recognition, is one of a group of men impressible for good, and impressible for evil, and it is in the nature of things that he cannot really improve himself without in some degree improving other men.”     

“Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”

“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time…”