I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising…

I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long long to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.

Book III - The Track of a Storm, Chapter XV - The Footsteps Die Out For Ever

Other A Tale of Two Cities Quotes

Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;– the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine! - View Quote Details on Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;– the last, much the easiest…
“If you hear my voice – I don’t know that it is so, but I hope it is – if you hear in my voice any resemblance to a voice that once was sweet music in your ears, weep for it, weep for it! If you touch, in touching my hair, anything that recalls a beloved head that lay on your breast when you were young and free, weep for it, weep for it! If, when I hint to you of a Home that is before us, where I will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service, I bring back the remembrance of a home long desolate, while your poor heart pined away, weep for it, weep for it!”…. - View Quote Details on “If you hear my voice – I don’t know that…
Deep ditch, single drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. One drawbridge down! “Work, comrades all, work! Work, Jacques One, Jacques Two, Jacques One Thousand, Jacques Two Thousand; in the name of all the angels or the devils – which you prefer – work!” - View Quote Details on Deep ditch, single drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers,…
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” - View Quote Details on It is a far, far better thing that I do,…
What did you make of it, Tom?”
“Nothing at all, Joe.”
“That’s a coincidence, too, for I made the same of it myself. - View Quote Details on "Nothing at...">What did you make of it, Tom?”
“Nothing at…
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place— then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement— and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice. - View Quote Details on I see that child who lay upon her bosom and…
I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other’s soul, than I was in the souls of both. - View Quote Details on I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts,…
Do you think that it will seem long to me, while I wait for her in the better land where I trust both you and I will be mercifully sheltered? - View Quote Details on Do you think that it will seem long to me,…
For I’m the devil at quick mistakes, and when I make one it takes the form of Lead. - View Quote Details on For I’m the devil at quick mistakes, and when I…
I, Alexandre Manette, unfortunate physician, native of Beauvais, and afterwards resident in Paris, write this melancholy paper in my doleful cell in the Bastille, during the last month of the year 1767. I write it at stolen intervals, under every difficulty. I design to secrete it in the wall of the chimney, where I have slowly and laboriously made a place of concealment for it. Some pitying hand may find it there, when I and my sorrows are dust. - View Quote Details on I, Alexandre Manette, unfortunate physician, native of Beauvais, and afterwards…