{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "A Christmas Carol", "slug": "a-christmas-carol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol.md", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/dk/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol_979-82-1731-462-1.jpg", "quotes_count": 16, "quotes": [ { "id": "e63a1332-8c38-45d6-aef5-9dd6208dcb41", "slug": "they-are-mans", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/they-are-mans", "text": "\"They are Man’s,\" said the Spirit, looking down upon them. \"And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" }, { "name": "ignorance", "slug": "ignorance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_3:_The_Second_of_the_Three_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "7a01620a-cde1-4d1b-b251-60974204667d", "slug": "it-is-a-fair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/it-is-a-fair", "text": "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.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "joy", "slug": "joy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy" }, { "name": "laughter", "slug": "laughter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_3:_The_Second_of_the_Three_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "49073407-57c4-43c5-932d-ee760b05797b", "slug": "scroooge-was-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/scroooge-was-better", "text": "Scroooge 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. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let then laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, the thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grims, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "laughter", "slug": "laughter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_5:_The_End_of_It", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "37cc2c96-ebd1-4ce5-938c-a4ca62d16627", "slug": "spirit-he-cried", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/spirit-he-cried", "text": "\"Spirit!\" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, \"hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_4:_The_Last_of_the_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "19ae170a-8e56-45bf-bf78-06e0d5e1a5b6", "slug": "i-am-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/i-am-in-the", "text": "\"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?\" said Scrooge. The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. \"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us,\" Scrooge pursued. \"Is that so, Spirit?\" The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer he received. Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_4:_The_Last_of_the_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "ea03057e-b1ce-41b0-9691-2b13dfdd9374", "slug": "at-this-festive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/at-this-festive", "text": "\"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.\" \"Are there no prisons?\" \"Plenty of prisons...\" \"And the Union workhouses.\" demanded Scrooge. \"Are they still in operation?\" \"Both very busy, sir...\" \"Those who are badly off must go there.\" \"Many can't go there; and many would rather die.\" \"If they would rather die,\" said Scrooge, \"they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "selfishness", "slug": "selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "e2ca80dc-1df9-45c2-8e1c-6d242786a3a0", "slug": "oh-but-he-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/oh-but-he-was", "text": "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.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "cafcbecf-2ec0-48b4-81d9-f339baefb519", "slug": "he-has-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/he-has-the", "text": "He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "words", "slug": "words", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/words" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_2:_The_First_of_the_Three_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "bf01cff1-9492-4cd2-b878-0df8e48ac5f6", "slug": "it-matters-little", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/it-matters-little", "text": "\"It matters little,\" she said, softly. \"To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.\" \"What Idol has displaced you?\" he rejoined. \"A golden one.\" \"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!\" he said. \"There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!\" \"You fear the world too much,\" she answered, gently. \"All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_2:_The_First_of_the_Three_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "b49a27b3-d826-482d-b9cc-771744571343", "slug": "there-are-some", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/there-are-some", "text": "\"There are some upon this earth of yours,\" returned the Spirit, \"who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_3:_The_Second_of_the_Three_Spirits", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "add7fb88-20ee-491d-a8e8-d188a848263c", "slug": "if-i-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/if-i-could", "text": "\"If I could work my will,\" said Scrooge indignantly, \"Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!\" \"Uncle!\" pleaded the nephew. \"Nephew!\" returned the uncle, sternly, \"keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.\" \"Keep it!\" repeated Scrooge's nephew. \"But you don't keep it.\" \"Let me leave it alone, then,\" said Scrooge. \"Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!\" \"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,\" returned the nephew: \"Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "938e7ca4-176f-4ba6-9bbf-db70eaf9d764", "slug": "business-cried-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/business-cried-the", "text": "\"Business!\" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. \"Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "mercy", "slug": "mercy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mercy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "57d805be-1233-4c7c-98cf-42f98b01e32d", "slug": "merry-christmas-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/merry-christmas-what", "text": "\"Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.\" \"Come, then,\" returned the nephew gaily. \"What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "joy", "slug": "joy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "3db483a4-357e-4f0d-9f52-994860ef14f0", "slug": "man-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/man-of-the", "text": "\"Man of the worldly mind!\" replied the Ghost, \"do you believe in me or not?\" \"I do,\" said Scrooge. \"I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?\" \"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 — oh, woe is me! — and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "0f5df15f-cc9a-4fba-9811-15f664159839", "slug": "i-should-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/i-should-have", "text": "I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "childhood", "slug": "childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" }, { "id": "07685555-946f-4e96-8a9e-d0d4b56f2bdd", "slug": "you-are-fettered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/you-are-fettered", "text": "\"You are fettered,\" said Scrooge, trembling. \"Tell me why?\" \"I wear the chain I forged in life,\" replied the Ghost. \"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. Is its pattern strange to you?\" Scrooge trembled more and more. \"Or would you know,\" pursued the Ghost, \"the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it since. It is a ponderous chain!\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "free will", "slug": "free-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/free-will" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Stave_1:_Marley's_Ghost", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:44" } ] }