To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things—but not so dismal as the wandering… where beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature.

About Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens ( ; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and journalist. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by...

More quotations from Charles Dickens

Train up a fig tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade of it.

—Charles Dickens

trees

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.

—Charles Dickens

money

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

—Charles Dickens

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

—Charles Dickens

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

—Charles Dickens

heart honor Christmas

History

7 Aug 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things — but not so dismal as the wandering . . . where beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature.