Quotes · verified word for word in the text
A Tale of Two Cities quotes
12 quotes from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #98 (public domain in the USA), the text this site’s reader shows. Each quote is copied exactly from that text and links to its passage in the reader; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against the reader’s text.
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
— Spoken by a character · XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.
— Spoken by a character · XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
— Spoken by a character · XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire--a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away.
— Spoken by a character · XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
“A multitude of people, and yet a solitude!” said Darnay, when they had listened for a while.
— Darnay · VI. Hundreds of People
Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.
— Spoken by a character · XVI. Still Knitting
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;--the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.
— Spoken by a character · IV. Congratulatory
O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father’s face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!
— Spoken by a character · XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy
Not knowing how he lost himself, or how he recovered himself, he may never feel certain of not losing himself again.
— Spoken by a character · VI. Hundreds of People
“Tell the Wind and the Fire where to stop; not me!”
— Spoken by a character · XII. Darkness