Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

“Lawyers hold that there are two kinds of particularly bad witnesses, a reluctant witness, and a too-willing witness; it was Mr Winkle’s fate to figure in both characters.”

“The main thing with people of that sort," said Holmes, as we sat in the sheets of the wherry, "is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do, they will instantly shut up like an oyster. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want.”

“And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment.”

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, that can recal to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”

“there is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman”

“These sequestered nooks are the public offices of the legal profession, where writs are issued, judgments signed, declarations filed, and numerous other ingenious little machines put in motion for the torture and torment of His Majesty’s liege subjects, and the comfort and emolument of the practitioners of the law.”

“Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these parts?" "It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the man that is to be murdered.”

“I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.”

“There are few things more worrying than sitting up for somebody, especially if that somebody be at a party. You cannot help thinking how quickly the time passes with them, which drags so heavily with you; and the more you think of this, the more your hopes of their speedy arrival decline.”

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius”

“It occurred to Mr. Winkle that this advice was very like that which bystanders invariably give to the smallest boy in a street fight, namely, ‘Go in, and win’—an admirable thing to recommend, if you only know how to do it.”

“I assumed my first undivided responsibility.”

“and I fancied I was little Pip again.”

“Nobody was hard with him or with me. There was duty to be done, and it was done, but not harshly.”

“Thieves and thief-takers hung in dead rapture on his words, and shrank when a hair of his eyebrows turned in their direction. Which side he was on, I couldn't make out., for he seemed to me to be grinding the whole place on a mill; I only know that when I stole a tiptoe, he was not on the side of bench; for he was making the legs of the old gentleman who presided quite convulsive under the table , by his denunciations of his conduct as the representative of British law and justice in that chair that day.”

“The faces of the three nearly touched, as the two men leant over the small table in their eagerness to hear, and the woman also leant forward to render her whisper audible. The sickly rays of the suspended lantern falling directly upon them, aggravated the paleness and anxiety of their countenances: which, encircled by the deepest gloom and darkness, looked ghastly in the extreme.”

“My employer, ma‘am—Mr. Heep—once did me the favour to observe to me that if I were not in the receipt of the stipendiary emoluments appertaining to my engagement with him, I should probably be a mountebank about the country, swallowing a sword-blade, and eating the devouring element. For anything that I can perceive to the contrary, it is still probable that my children may be reduced to seek a livelihood by personal contortion, while Mrs. Micawber abets their unnatural feats, by playing the barrel-organ.”

“CHAPTER XXXIX INTRODUCES SOME RESPECTABLE CHARACTERS WITH WHOM THE READER IS ALREADY ACQUAINTED, AND SHEWS HOW MONKS AND THE JEW LAID THEIR WORTHY HEADS TOGETHER”

“CHAPTER XX WHEREIN OLIVER IS DELIVERED OVER TO MR. WILLIAM SIKES”

“At last he met the chief butler, the sight of which splendid retainer always finished him. Extinguished by this great creature, he sneaked to his dressing-room, and there remained shut up until he rode out to dinner, with Mrs Merdle, in her own handsome chariot. At dinner, he was envied”