It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

If a pig could give his mind to anything, he would not be a pig.

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

A merry Christmas to everybody A happy New Year to all the world

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

There is a wisdom of the head, and … a wisdom of the heart.

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

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honestly out of countenance any day of the week, if there is anything to get got by it.

By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time…

…it was always said of him Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us

A merry Christmas, uncle God save you’ cried a cheerful voice. ‘Bah’ said Scrooge. ‘Humbug’

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

Once upon a time–of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve–old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house.

Out upon merry Christmas What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer… If I could work my will,’ said Scrooge indignantly, ‘every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ upon his lips should be boiled with his won pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should’

There is always something for which to be thankful.