KEY THEMES AND QUOTES IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 1)

“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 1)

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 1)

“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” – Jacob Marley’s Ghost (Stave 1)

“Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 1)

“Man’s wisdom is held in his keeping, and yet men do not seek it.” – The Ghost of Christmas Present (Stave 2)

“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world. – The Ghost of Jacob Marley (Stave 1)

“He went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much joy.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 5)

“I wear the chain I forged in life…I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” – Jacob Marley’s Ghost (Stave 1)

“The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” – Fezziwig (Stave 2)

“Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 1) IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD QUOTES

“Always after any new ghost appeared to him, Scrooge acted in a renewed and better way.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 5)

“A small matter,” said the Ghost, “to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.” – The Ghost of Christmas Present (Stave 2)

“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 1)

“It was a strange figure—like a child; yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child’s proportions.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 2)

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 4)

“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!” – Ebenezer Scrooge (Stave 5)

“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 5)

“And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one!” – Tiny Tim (Stave 5)

“I don’t deserve to be so happy.” – Scrooge (Stave 5)

“The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.” – Charles Dickens (Narrator, Stave 4)