Talk:Charles Dickens

What does this saying mean? "Whitewash on the forehead hardens the brain into a state of obstinacy perhaps."

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to Charles Dickens. --Antiquary 18:30, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self. — -- Wesha (talk) 23:17, 13 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true. -- see The Wreck of the Golden Mary


 * The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states.

This appears to be a conflation of a conclusion made by Peter Ackroyd in his 1990 book Dickens and not a quote from Charles Dickens himself. --165.83.128.24 17:19, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together. (1845, in a letter to lady Blessingon) —  -- Wesha (talk) 23:19, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

"Chocolate" quote
"There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate."

This one is certainly making the rounds on the Internet and Facebook. Can anyone find a source? Doesn't sound like Dickens to me. It sounds like something Winnie the Pooh would say about honey. (And in a Disney cartoon at that, not the original Milne.) Anyone?


 * It's wrong. It comes from The Printwick Papers (a merchandising Web site), not Dickens' Pickwick Papers, but idiots have been passing it around erroneously for years. See CL4.org for an explanation. 86.135.115.218 22:22, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Hah, so does the social media team for a certain multinational purveyor of ice creams. Goodreads attributes it to Linda Grayson though.


 * Goodreads attributed it to Dickens for a long time; then I assume someone saw my post about it and quietly fixed it. Equinox (talk) 01:32, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

India's Sepoy Mutiny 1857 & Dickens' stated desire for Genocide?

 * "I wish I were commander-in-chief in India.... I should proclaim to them that I considered my holding that appointment by the leave of God, to mean that I should do my utmost to exterminate the race" - Charles Dickens, written apparently in context of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and the brutalities inflicted by the rebels on English women and children

How to verify the authenticity of this quote? 103.23.25.33 08:39, 26 August 2013 (UTC)


 * According to a GoogleBooks search, it would seem Dickens wrote that "in a private letter to Baronness Burdett-Coutts on 4 October 1857". See also here. ~ DanielTom (talk) 08:57, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Full quote can be found here https://books.google.com/books?id=hl_Ta-bYMOkC&pg=PA53&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMIvc_m_K6GxwIVyiqICh3v8Ag6#v=onepage&q&f=false


 * I wish I were Commander in Chief of India. The first thing I would do to strike that Oriental race with amazement (not in the least regarding them as if they lived in the Strand, London, or at Camden Town), should be to proclaim to them in their language, that I considered my Holding that appointment by the leave of God, to mean that I should do my utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested; and that I begged them to do me the favor to observe that I was there for that purpose and no other, and was now proceeding, which all convenient dispatch and merciful swiftness of execution, to blot it out of mankind and raze it off the face of the earth.

Love of a Cat
"What greater gift than the love of a cat." This quotation attributed to Dickens can be found all over the Internet in quotation sites and warm, fuzzy memes, but I've never seen a valid citation. Can anyone help with this?


 * I looked through Google Books and wasn't able to find that quotation in its exact form. -- Wesha (talk) 05:48, 11 April 2020 (UTC)