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

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Book I - Recalled to Life, Chapter I - The Period

The opening lines of the novel

Other A Tale of Two Cities Quotes

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 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. - View Quote Details on I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising…
Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind. - View Quote Details on Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers,…
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…
Repression is the only lasting philosophy. - View Quote Details on Repression is the only lasting philosophy.
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…
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,…
Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away. - View Quote Details on Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder…
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…