Charles Dickens: Frasi in inglese (pagina 3)

Charles Dickens era scrittore, giornalista e reporter di viaggio britannico. Frasi in inglese.
Charles Dickens: 221   frasi 60   Mi piace

“I don't care whether I am a Minx or a Sphinx.”

Charles Dickens libro Il nostro comune amico

Bk. II, Ch. 8
Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

“The bearings of this observation lays in the application on it.”

Charles Dickens libro Dombey e Figlio

Origine: Dombey and Son (1846-1848), Ch. 23

“My guiding star always is, Get hold of portable property.”

Charles Dickens libro Great Expectations

Origine: Great Expectations (1860-1861), Ch. 24

“I used to sit, think, think, thinking, till I felt as lonesome as a kitten in a wash–house copper with the lid on.”

Charles Dickens libro Sketches by Boz

Our Parish, Ch. 5 : The Broker’s Man
Sketches by Boz (1836-1837)

“If the people at large be not already convinced that a sufficient general case has been made out for Administrative Reform, I think they never can be, and they never will be…. Ages ago a savage mode of keeping accounts on notched sticks was introduced into the Court of Exchequer, and the accounts were kept, much as Robinson Crusoe kept his calendar on the desert island. In the course of considerable revolutions of time, the celebrated Cocker was born, and died; Walkinghame, of the Tutor's Assistant, and well versed in figures, was also born, and died; a multitude of accountants, book-keepers and actuaries, were born, and died. Still official routine inclined to these notched sticks, as if they were pillars of the constitution, and still the Exchequer accounts continued to be kept on certain splints of elm wood called "tallies." In the reign of George III an inquiry was made by some revolutionary spirit, whether pens, ink, and paper, slates and pencils, being in existence, this obstinate adherence to an obsolete custom ought to be continued, and whether a change ought not to be effected.
All the red tape in the country grew redder at the bare mention of this bold and original conception, and it took till 1826 to get these sticks abolished. In 1834 it was found that there was a considerable accumulation of them; and the question then arose, what was to be done with such worn-out, worm-eaten, rotten old bits of wood? I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and despatch-boxing on this mighty subject. The sticks were housed at Westminster, and it would naturally occur to any intelligent person that nothing could be easier than to allow them to be carried away for fire-wood by the miserable people who live in that neighbourhood. However, they never had been useful, and official routine required that they never should be, and so the order went forth that they were to be privately and confidentially burnt. It came to pass that they were burnt in a stove in the House of Lords. The stove, overgorged with these preposterous sticks, set fire to the panelling; the panelling set fire to the House of Lords; the House of Lords set fire to the House of Commons; the two houses were reduced to ashes; architects were called in to build others; we are now in the second million of the cost thereof, the national pig is not nearly over the stile yet; and the little old woman, Britannia, hasn't got home to-night…. The great, broad, and true cause that our public progress is far behind our private progress, and that we are not more remarkable for our private wisdom and success in matters of business than we are for our public folly and failure, I take to be as clearly established as the sun, moon, and stars.”

"Administrative Reform" (June 27, 1855) Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Speeches Literary and Social by Charles Dickens https://books.google.com/books?id=bT5WAAAAcAAJ (1870) pp. 133-134

“That's the state to live and die in!…R-r-rich!”

Charles Dickens libro Il nostro comune amico

Bk. III, Ch. 5
Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

“If any one were to ask me what in my opinion was the dullest and most stupid spot on the face of the Earth, I should decidedly say Chelmsford.”

Letter to Thomas Beard (11 January 1835), in Madeline House, et al., The Letters of Charles Dickens (1965), p. 53

“In love of home, the love of country has its rise.”

Charles Dickens libro The Old Curiosity Shop

Origine: The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), Ch. 38

“Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine.”

The Signal-Man http://www.charles-dickens.org/three-ghost-stories-the-signal-man/ebook-page-04.asp (1866)

“No one is useless in this world,' retorted the Secretary, 'who lightens the burden of it for any one else.”

Charles Dickens libro Il nostro comune amico

Bk. III, Ch. 9
Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

“There is a wisdom of the Head, and … there is a wisdom of the Heart.”

Charles Dickens libro Tempi difficili

Bk. III, Ch. 1
Hard Times (1854)