Great Expectations Quotes

“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.”

“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 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.”

“You are in every line I have ever read.”

“I am what you designed me to be. I am your blade. You cannot now complain if you also feel the hurt.”

“Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.”

“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.”

“Scattered wits take a long time in picking up.”

“We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.”

“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.”

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.”

“I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.”

“There was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery.”

“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!”

“Life is made of so many partings welded together.”

“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!”

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

“No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”

“She had curiously thoughtful and attentive eyes; eyes that were very pretty and very good.”

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

“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.”

“I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”

“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”