Charles Dickens, Marile Speranţe

Dacă nu v-a căzut cartea în mână, păcat! Dacă nu v-a căzut şi filmul, păcat.

Iubeşte-o, iubeşte-o, iubeşte-o! Dacă te încurajează - iubeşte-o! Dacă te răneşte - iubeşte-o! Dacă-ţi sfâşie inima în bucăţi - şi cu timpul inima o să-ţi îmbătrânească şi o să se întărească şi de-aia o să te doară din ce în ce mai rău - iubeşte-o, iubeşte-o, iubeşte-o!

" . . . Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose."

" . . . You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since - on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!"

" . . .suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape."

“. . . it is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”