Man cannot really improve himself without improving others.

... Treachery don't come natural to beaming youth; but trust and pity, love and constancy,-they do, thank God!

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.

Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.

Look round and round upon this bare bleak plain, and see even here, upon a winter's day, how beautiful the shadows are! Alas! It is the nature of their kind to be so. The loveliest things in life... are but shadows; and they come and go, and change and fade away, as rapidly as these.

She better liked to see him free and happy, even than to have him near her, because she loved him better than herself.