A Tale of Two Cities

• "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..."
  • Source: Book I: "Called to Life", Chapter I: "The Period"
  • Note: Opening sentences

• "The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that the guard suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, and the coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to which cattle he could with a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two Testaments that they were not fit for the journey."
  • Source: Book the First: "Called to Life", Chapter II: "The Mail"

• "Keep where you are because, if I should make a mistake, it could never be set right in your lifetime."
  • Source: Book the First: "Called to Life", Chapter II: "The Mail"
  • Said by a guard.

• "For I'm the devil at quick mistakes, and when I make one it takes the form of Lead."
  • Source: Book the First: "Called to Life", Chapter II: "The Mail"

• "What did you make of it, Tom?"
  "Nothing at all, Joe."
  "That's a coincidence, too, for I made the same of it myself."
  • Source: Book the First: "Called to Life", Chapter II: "The Mail"
  • Said in response to a myserious message that was heard : "Recalled to Life".

• "Repression is the only lasting philosophy."
  • Source: Book the Second: "The Golden Thread", Chapter IX: "The Gorgon's Head"

• "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?"
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"

• "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."
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"

• "I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more."
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"

• "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."
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"

• "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."
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"

• "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."
  • Source: Book the Third: "The Track of a Storm", Chapter XV: "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever"