“You will, of course, receive my opinion as that of an individual writer and student of art, who by no means claims to be infallible.”

Framing literary criticism with humility about personal judgement · Letter to an anonymous correspondent, 5 February 1867

• Art
• Truth

“I have grown hard to satisfy, and write very slowly, and I have so much bad fiction, that will be thought of when I don't want to think of it, that I am forced to take more care than I ever took.”

Describing increasing artistic self-criticism and care in later work · Letter to John Forster, 29 March 1864

• Art
• Truth

“It is remarkable that if you do not administer a disagreeable character carefully, the public have a decided tendency to think that the story is disagreeable, and not merely the fictitious person.”

Offering practical insight into how readers respond to unpleasant characters · Letter to Percy Fitzgerald, 27 July 1864

• Art
• Truth

“I have no means of knowing whether you are patient in the pursuit of this art; but I am inclined to think that you are not, and that you do not discipline yourself enough.”

Treating patience and self-discipline as necessary parts of literary craft · Letter to Emily Jolly, 30 May 1857

• Art
• Truth

“I have learned, I hope, from the art we both profess (if you will forgive this classification of myself with you) to respect a man of genius in his mistakes, no less than in his triumphs.”

Extending respect for artistic genius to failure as well as success · Letter to James Sheridan Knowles, 26 May 1847

• Art
• Truth

“But I am bound to add that I do not regard successful fiction as a thing to be achieved in “leisure moments.”

Rejecting the idea that serious fiction can be mastered casually · Letter to an anonymous correspondent, 27 December 1866

• Art
• Truth

“To have established such relations with readers of my books is a great happiness to me, and one that I hope never to forfeit by being otherwise than manfully and truly in earnest in my vocation.”

Valuing readers' trust as something that must be earned through sincerity · Letter to R. M. Ross, 19 February 1866

• Art
• Friendship

“I never read one word of their abuse, and I should think it base to read their praises.”

Rejecting both hostile and flattering criticism from the same quarter · Letter to W. H. Wills, 4 March 1846

• Fame
• Truth

“You cannot show your affection for him so well, or make him so happy, as by doing your duty.”

Linking filial affection with responsible action rather than words · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Love
• Truth

“Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying your own private prayers, night and morning.”

Recommending private prayer as a sustaining personal practice · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Faith
• Hope

“The more we are in earnest as to feeling it, the less we are disposed to hold forth about it.”

Suggesting that sincere faith tends towards humility rather than display · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Faith
• Truth

“It is much better for you that they should fail in obeying the greatest rule laid down by our Saviour, than that you should.”

Placing personal moral conduct above disappointment in other people · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Faith
• Truth

“Try to do to others, as you would have them do to you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes.”

Urging kindness without making it dependent on reciprocity · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Friendship
• Hope

“Never take a mean advantage of anyone in any transaction, and never be hard upon people who are in your power.”

Giving concise ethical advice about fairness and the use of power · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Friendship
• Truth

“I was not so old as you are now when I first had to win my food, and do this out of this determination, and I have never slackened in it since.”

Looking back on the discipline that shaped his working life · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Hope
• Memory

“I therefore exhort you to persevere in a thorough determination to do whatever you have to do as well as you can do it.”

Urging wholehearted effort in whatever work life requires · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Hope
• Truth

“What you have already wanted until now has been a set, steady, constant purpose.”

Identifying constancy of purpose as essential to maturity · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Hope
• Truth

“But this life is half made up of partings, and these pains must be borne.”

Accepting separation as an unavoidable part of human life · Letter to Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, 1868

• Love
• Time

“All that I can claim for myself in establishing the relations which exist between us is constant fidelity to hard work.”

Attributing his bond with readers to sustained effort rather than mystique · Speech, Liverpool, 10 April 1869

• Art
• Truth

“Your earnestness has stimulated mine, your laughter has made me laugh, and your tears have overflowed my eyes.”

Describing the reciprocal emotional energy between writer and audience · Speech, Liverpool, 10 April 1869

• Art
• Friendship

“As the gold is said to be doubly and trebly refined which has seven times passed the furnace, so a fancy may be said to become more and more refined each time it passes through the human heart.”

Describing art as enriched by the emotional response of those who receive it · Speech, Liverpool, 10 April 1869

• Art
• Beauty

“I shall never recall you as a mere public audience, but rather as a host of personal friends, and ever with the greatest gratitude, tenderness, and consideration.”

Transforming the relationship between performer and audience into remembered friendship · Speech, New York, 20 April 1868

• Friendship
• Memory

“Be assured, however, that you will not pass from my mind.”

Promising that separation will not erase affection or remembrance · Speech, New York, 20 April 1868

• Friendship
• Memory

“It is but a very short one, but the weight of such things is not measured by their length, and two much shorter words express the round of our human existence.”

Reflecting on how the briefest words can carry the heaviest human meanings · Speech, New York, 20 April 1868

• Mortality
• Time