# Quote — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

> "'We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we common dogs are by those superior Beings — taxed by him without mercy, obliged to work for him without pay, obliged to grind our corn at his mill, obliged to feed scores of his tame birds on our wretched crops, and forbidden for our lives to keep a single tame bird of our own, pillaged and plundered to that degree that when we chanced to have a bit of meat, we ate it in fear, with the doors barred and the shutters closed, that his people should not see it and take it from us — I say, we were so robbed, and hunted, and were made so poor, that our father told us it was a dreadful thing to bring a child into the world, and that what we should most pray for, was, that our women might be barren and our miserable race die out!'"

- Author: [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md)
- Book: [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_X_-_The_Substance_of_the_Shadow) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/we-were-so-robbed

## More from this book

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/i-see-that.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/i-see-the.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md)

> 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 years 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/i-see-a-beautiful.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md)