This month I’ve been reading Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. There are many passages I could quote. Here are just a few:
“Has a dead man any use for money? Is it possible for a dead man to have money? What world does a dead man belong to? ‘Tother world. What world does money belong to? This world. Can a corpse own it, want it, spend it, claim it, miss it,? Don’t try to go confounding the rights and wrong of things in that way. But it’s worthy of the sneaking spirit that robs a live man.” (page 6)
“No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” (page 18)
“And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at itself and dies with the doer of it! but Good, never. (page 95)
“I have made up my mind that I must have money, Pa. I feel that I can’t beg it, borrow it, or steal it; and so I have resolved that I must marry it.” (page 302)
“This reminds me, godmother, to ask you a serious question. You are as wise as wise can be (having been brought up by the fairies), and you can tell me this: Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it?” (page 410)
“And Oh! there are days in this life, worth life and worth death. And Oh, what a bright old song it is, that Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!” (page 636) (From a popular song usually sung to the French tune ‘C’est l’amour’.)
BooksPlease 
I love the quote from pg. 18, it’s almost heartbreaking. I take forgranted my ability to read– can’t remember not reading.
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I haven’t yet read Our Mutual Friend but your selection of quotes has spurred my interest, not that I want to do another Dickens yet this year. They seem to me to really evoke Dickens so well, and I agree with Katherine that the one from page 18 pulls at my heart.
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I have not read this, but love your choices of quotes.
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Dickens is one of my favourite writers. I haven’t read this one yet but looking forward to read it.
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Margaret – Such wonderful quotes! Thanks for sharing. I should re-read some Dickens; haven’t in too long. And I agree with Katherine; the quote about books is particularly powerful.
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Great quotes – I read Our Mutual Friend recently and loved it.
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I too love the quote about reading and books. The one from p. 302 about marrying money reminds me that my mother always said it’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one. Neither one of us found that to be true though.
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