Here are the 37 best handpicked quotes from “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens:
From quotes by Oliver Twist to quotes by Mr. Bumble to quotes by Nancy.
So if you want the best quotes from “Oliver Twist” sorted by figure, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s jump right in!
My Favorite “Oliver Twist” Quote
#1
“Some people are nobody’s enemies but their own.”
— Mr. Bolter
This quote is my favorite in this collection because it shows us how we can be our own biggest enemies may it be through our self-destructive behaviors or beliefs.
It brings to light the importance of understanding oneself so we can also know our limitations.
If we don’t know how to control our emotions, be smart with our choices, and taking full responsibility of its results, then, indeed, our biggest obstacles lie within ourselves.
1 Quote by Oliver
#2
“Please, sir, I want some more.”
— Oliver
3 Quotes by Mr. Bumble
#3
“Every trade has its draw-backs.”
— Mr. Bumble
#4
“I hope you say your prayers every night,” said another gentleman in a gruff voice; “and pray for the people who feed you, and take care of you…”
— Mr. Bumble
#5
“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper, said Mr. Bumble. So cry away.”
— Mr. Bumble
3 Quotes by Fagin
#6
“Every man’s his own friend, my dear.”
— Fagin
#7
“You have a friend in me, Nance; a staunch friend. I have the means at hand, quiet and close. If you want revenge on those that treat you like a dog… come to me. I say, come to me.”
— Fagin
#8
“I never lock up my money, for I’ve got none to lock up, my dear—ha! ha! ha!—none to lock up.”
— Fagin
3 Quotes by Mr. Brownlow
#9
“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
— Mr. Brownlow
#10
“Although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up for ever on my best affections. Deep affliction has only made them stronger; it ought, I think, for it should refine our nature.”
— Fagin
#11
“Speak the truth, and you shall not be friendless while I live.”
— Fagin
2 Quotes by Mrs. Maylie
#12
“It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.”
— Mrs. Maylie
#13
“I know that she deserves the best and purest love the heart of man can offer,” said Mrs. Maylie; “I know that the devotion and affection of her nature require no ordinary return, but one that shall be deep and lasting.”
— Mrs. Maylie
1 Quote by Mr. Sikes
#14
“Women can always put things in fewest words. Except when it’s blowing up; and then they lengthens it out.”
— Mr. Sikes
2 Quotes by Harry Maylie
#15
“My heart is set, as firmly as ever heart of man was set on woman. I have no thought, no view, no hope, in life beyond her; and if you oppose me in this great stake, you take my peace and happiness in your hands, and cast them to the wind.”
— Harry Maylie
#16
“We know, Heaven help us! that the best and fairest of our kind, too often fade in blooming.”
— Harry Maylie
1 Quote by Mrs. Bedwin
#17
“‘He was a dear, grateful, gentle child, sir,’ retorted Mrs. Bedwin, indignantly. ‘I know what children are, sir; and have done these forty years; and people who can’t say the same, shouldn’t say anything about them.'”
— Mrs. Bedwin
2 Quotes by Rose
#18
“But even if he has been wicked,” pursued Rose, “think how young he is; think that he may never have known a mother’s love, or the comfort of a home; that ill-usage and blows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt.”
— Rose
#19
“There is a stain upon my name, which the world visits on innocent heads. I will carry it into no blood but my own; and the reproach shall rest alone on me.”
— Rose
1 Quote by Mr. Losberne
#20
“Good training is always desirable, whether the race be for place, cup, or sweepstakes.”
— Mr. Losberne
3 Quotes by Nancy
#21
“Thank Heaven upon your knees, dear lady,” cried the girl, “that you had friends to care for and keep you in your childhood, and that you were never in the midst of cold and hunger, and riot and drunkenness, and—and—something worse than all—as I have been from my cradle.”
— Nancy
#22
“I must go back. Whether it is God’s wrath for the wrong I have done, I do not know; but I am drawn back to him through every suffering and ill usage; and I should be, I believe, if I knew that I was to die by his hand at last.”
— Nancy
#23
“”You can do nothing to help me. I am past all hope, indeed.”
— Nancy
1 Quote by Artful Dodger
#24
“‘You’ve been brought up bad,’ said the Dodger, surveying his boots with much satisfaction when Oliver had polished them. ‘Fagin will make something of you, though, or you’ll be the first he ever had that turned out unprofitable.'”
— Artful Dodger
13 Quotes by No Specific Figure
#25
“Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.”
— Oliver Twist
#26
“Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die.”
— Oliver Twist
#27
“Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets, at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world.”
— Oliver Twist
#28
“It was a happy time. The days were peaceful and serene; the nights brought with them neither fear nor care; no languishing in a wretched prison, or associating with wretched men; nothing but pleasant and happy thoughts.”
— Oliver Twist
#29
“If I had only had the courage to say the word, I might have been free of you in a night. Curses on your head, and black death on your heart, you imp! What are you doing here?”
— Oliver Twist
#30
“Let the tears which fell, and the broken words which were exchanged in the long close embrace between the orphans, be sacred.”
— Oliver Twist
#31
“Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the somber colors are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision.”
— Oliver Twist
#32
“The simple fact was, that Oliver, instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much; and was in a fair way of being reduced, for life, to a state of brutal stupidity and sullenness by the ill-usage he had received.”
— Oliver Twist
#33
“The sun,–the bright sun, that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man–burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray.”
— Oliver Twist
#34
“Oh! the suspense, the fearful, acute suspense, of standing idly by while the life of one we dearly love, is trembling in the balance!”
— Oliver Twist
#35
“The desperate anxiety to be doing something to relieve the pain, or lessen the danger, which we have no power to alleviate.”
— Oliver Twist
#36
“There is a kind of sleep that steals upon us sometimes, which, while it holds the body prisoner, does not free the mind from a sense of things about it, and enable it to ramble at its pleasure.”
— Oliver Twist
#37
“But, tears were not the things to find their way to Mr. Bumble’s soul; his heart was waterproof.”
— Oliver Twist