Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens

like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again. Scattered wits take a long time picking up; and often before I had got them well together, they would be dispersed in all directions by one stray thought,

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”

When you say you love me, I know what you mean, as a form of words; but nothing more. You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there.