101+ Best 'A Christmas Carol' Quotes That Even Scrooge Will Like
Gallery
'A Christmas Carol' is synonymous with the festive season.
Set during Christmas time, this novella is Charles Dickens' most famous work. Its popularity has endured throughout the centuries, with countless adaptations and dramatizations still being produced today.
Part of the appeal of 'A Christmas Carol', is the strong moral lesson at its center. Charles Dickens' protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge and the transformation he undergoes, reveals that happiness is not found through monetary gain, but through our relationships with others.
Indeed Charles Dickens emphasizes the plight of the poor and that we should treat people less fortunate with kindness throughout the book.
If you are looking for more Charles Dickens quote inspiration, check out these Charles Dickens quotes and Oliver Twist quotes.
Famous Christmas Carol Quotes
Such is the popularity of Charles Dickens' novella that many of its quotes have permeated into today's vernacular. Whilst most people know the "Bah Humbug" quote or the Tiny Tim quote, "God bless us every one" (the last line of the novella), there are many more famous quotes from 'A Christmas Carol' worth knowing.
Number eight is a particularly famous saying from Scrooge himself!
1. "Marley was dead: to begin with."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
2. "If they would rather die... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
3. "There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor."
- Stave 3, 'A Christmas Carol'.
4. "Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
5. "God bless us, every one!"
- Tiny Tim.
6. "Bah, humbug!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
7. "Money can't buy a happy life, or a peaceful death."
Stave 4, 'A Christmas Carol'.
8. "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
Jacob Marley Quotes
The 'A Christmas Carol' opening line talks of the deceased Jacob Marley, who plays a significant role in the transformation of Scrooge in 'A Christmas Carol', as the first ghost to visit him and warn him of the fate that awaits if he does not change.
9. "No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused!"
- Jacob Marley.
10. "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.
11. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
- Jacob Marley.
12. "It is required of every man... that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."
- Jacob Marley.
13. "Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed...not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed".
- Jacob Marley.
14." I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting house -mark me! In life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!"
- Jacob Marley.
15. "Why did I walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"
- Jacob Marley.
16. "I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate."
- Jacob Marley.
17. "No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse."
- Jacob Marley.
18. "How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day."
- Jacob Marley.
Ebenezer Scrooge Quotes
The most notable quotes from 'A Christmas Carol' are predominantly Scrooge sayings. Through Scrooge's dialogue, Charles Dickens demonstrates the extent to which Scrooge changes, as exemplified through his interaction with the poor. Which is your favorite 'A Christmas Carol' quote?
19. "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."
20. "I wish to be left alone...I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
21. "It's not my business...It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
22. "Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses?"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
23. "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
24."This is the evenhanded dealing of the world!... 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!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
25. "Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
26. "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
27. "The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
28. "Oh tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone".
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
29. "Are these the shadows of things that will be or are they the shadows of the things that may be, only?"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
30. "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?"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
31. "I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
32. "Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
33. "I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
34. "In short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value."
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
35. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
36. "There's the door, by which the ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present, sat! There's the window where I saw the wandering spirits! It's all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha ha ha!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
37. "I don't know what to do! I am as light as a feather... happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy... A Merry Christmas to everybody!"
- Ebenezer Scrooge.
The Ghost Of Christmas Past Quotes
The Ghost of Christmas Past is the second ghost to visit Scrooge in Charles Dickens' tale. Indeed by showing Scrooge his past self, this allows him to remember his past and see his previous wrongdoings in a new light.
38. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past".
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
39. "Rise! And walk with me!"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
40. "Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give?"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
41. "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
42. "Your welfare!… Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
43. "Bear but a touch of my hand there... and you shall be upheld in more than this!"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
44. "A small matter... to make these silly folks so full of gratitude."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
45. "These are but shadows of the things that have been... They have no consciousness of us".
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
46. "Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered... but she had a large heart!"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
The Ghost Of Christmas Present Quotes
The third ghost to visit Scrooge in Charles Dickens' novella is the Ghost Of Christmas Present, who shows Scrooge how his present actions affect others negatively. This is shown through the Cratchit family, who are struggling to feed their family and care for their sick son due to the poor salary provided by Scrooge.
47. "Come in, come in, and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me!"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
48. "I see a vacant seat... in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
49. "There are some upon this earth of yours… 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."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
50. "They are man's and they cling to me…This boy is Ignorance and 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."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
51. "Man...if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is, and where it is."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
52. "If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my race...will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
53. "Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be in the sight of heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
54. "To a poor one most... because it needs it most."
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
55. "Are there no prisons?... Are there no workhouses?"
- The Ghost Of Christmas Present.
Bob Cratchit Quotes
Bob Cratchit represents all Scrooge is not: poor, family orientated and full of Christmas cheer. Scrooge, contrastingly, is rich, prefers solitude and vehemently dislikes Christmas time. Bob and his family also symbolize Charles Dickens' main themes of poverty and gratitude in a greedy world through Tiny Tim's proclamation "God bless us every one".
56. "I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child!... My little child!"
- Bob Cratchit.
57. "A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!"
- Bob Cratchit.
58. "He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."
- Bob Cratchit.
59. "I wish you could have gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place it is."
- Bob Cratchit.
60. "When we recollect how patient and how mild he was; although he was a little, little child; we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it."
- Bob Cratchit.
61. "I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast."
- Bob Cratchit.
62. "I am sure we shall none of us forget Tiny Tim."
- Bob Cratchit.
63. "It really seemed as if he had known our Tiny Tim, and felt with us."
- Bob Cratchit.
64. "It's only once a year... It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir."
- Bob Cratchit.
65. "Oh, a wonderful pudding!"
- Bob Cratchit.
Fred Quotes
Scrooge's nephew, Fred, acts as a foil to Scrooge in Charles Dickens' classic tale. Eager to involve Scrooge in the Christmas festivities, his enthusiasm, kindness and generosity to Scrooge is initially met with resistance.
66. "A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!"
- Fred.
67. "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!"
- Fred.
68. "I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself always".
- Fred.
69. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."
- Fred.
70."He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure... and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health."
- Fred.
71. "He's a comical old fellow... that's the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him".
- Fred.
72. "A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is!... He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!"
- Fred.
73. "I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last."
- Fred.
74. "I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?"
- Fred.
Quotes About Scrooge
Narrated in the third person, much of Charles Dickens' story comprises quotes about Scrooge.
75. "Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
76. "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."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
77. "He carried his own low temperature around with him."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
78. "Nobody stopped him in the street to say... 'My dear Scrooge, how are you?'"
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
79. "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
80. "Scrooge was the ogre of the family and the mention of his name cast a dark shadow."
- Stave 3, 'A Christmas Carol'.
81. "Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner."
- Stave 1, 'A Christmas Carol'.
82. "To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects... and to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city, indeed."
- Stave 2, 'A Christmas Carol'.
83. "For a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh,a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!"
- Stave 5, 'A Christmas Carol'.
84. "The chuckle with which he paid for the turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled until he cried."
- Stave 5, 'A Christmas Carol'.
85. "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."
- Stave 5, 'A Christmas Carol'.
86. "And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!"
- Stave 5, 'A Christmas Carol'.
87. "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."
- Stave 5, 'A Christmas Carol'.
Belle Quotes
In Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol', Belle provides insight into the man Scrooge once was, and what has lead to him becoming the miserly man we are first introduced to.
88. "May you be happy in the life you have chosen."
- Belle.
89. "I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you."
- Belle.
90. "Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it was made, you were another man."
- Belle.
91. "Belle: 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.
Scrooge: What idol has displaced you?...
Belle: A golden one."
92. "You fear the world too much... All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach."
- Belle.
93. "If this had never been between us... tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!"
- Belle.
94. "I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once were."
- Belle.
95. "You may... have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke."
- Belle.
96. "That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two."
- Belle.
Charles Dickens Quotes About Christmas
Many of Charles Dickens' quotes from 'A Christmas Carol' illustrate his views about Christmas time; how it is a sacred time of year, how important it is to celebrate with family and friends, and how people should treat others, particularly the poor, during the festive season and beyond.
The most famous Charles Dickens quote about Christmas features below and is said by Scrooge's nephew.
Merry Christmas!
97. "For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself."
- Stave 3, 'A Christmas Carol'.
98. "For they said, it was a shame to quarrel on Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was!"
- Stave 3, 'A Christmas Carol'.
99. "There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad."
- Stave 3, 'A Christmas Carol'.
100. "I have endeavored in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves... with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."
- Preface, 'A Christmas Carol'.
101. "I have always thought of Christmastime...as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time… when men and women…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…creatures bound on other journeys."
- Fred.
Here at Kidadl, we have compiled more Charles Dickens quotes for you to enjoy! If you liked our 'A Christmas Carol' quotes, then why not visit our 'Great Expectations' quotes or 'Tale Of Two Cities' quotes?
We Want Your Photos!
More for You
See All
Bachelor of Arts specializing in English Literature, Master of Letters specializing in Playwriting and Dramaturgy
Harriet SambrookBachelor of Arts specializing in English Literature, Master of Letters specializing in Playwriting and Dramaturgy
An accomplished writer and theater enthusiast, Harriet has developed a passion for the dramatic arts throughout her career. Originally from Surrey, she completed her undergraduate studies in English literature at the University of East Anglia and later obtained a postgraduate degree in playwriting and dramaturgy from Glasgow University. Now based in Manchester, Harriet enjoys attending as many theatrical performances as possible. With prior experience in marketing and script editing, she brings a wealth of knowledge to any creative project she undertakes.
Disclaimer
1) Kidadl is independent and to make our service free to you the reader we are supported by advertising. We hope you love our recommendations for products and services! What we suggest is selected independently by the Kidadl team. If you purchase using the Buy Now button we may earn a small commission. This does not influence our choices. Prices are correct and items are available at the time the article was published but we cannot guarantee that on the time of reading. Please note that Kidadl is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. We also link to other websites, but are not responsible for their content.
2) At Kidadl, we strive to recommend the very best activities and events. We will always aim to give you accurate information at the date of publication - however, information does change, so it’s important you do your own research, double-check and make the decision that is right for your family. We recognise that not all activities and ideas are appropriate for all children and families or in all circumstances. Our recommended activities are based on age but these are a guide. We recommend that these ideas are used as inspiration, that ideas are undertaken with appropriate adult supervision, and that each adult uses their own discretion and knowledge of their children to consider the safety and suitability. Kidadl cannot accept liability for the execution of these ideas, and parental supervision is advised at all times, as safety is paramount. Anyone using the information provided by Kidadl does so at their own risk and we can not accept liability if things go wrong.
3) Because we are an educational resource, we have quotes and facts about a range of historical and modern figures. We do not endorse the actions of or rhetoric of all the people included in these collections, but we think they are important for growing minds to learn about under the guidance of parents or guardians.
