Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas:
Weakness is tiring, but strength is exhausting.

Vincent Crummles/Narrator:
What happens when too early we lose a parent, that party on whom we rely for only everything? We must build a new family, person by person.

Mrs. Crummles:
Let us use our bodies as instruments, and quiver together, until music comes out.

Ralph Nickleby:
He was stolen, right from under you?

Wackford Squeers:
Not to be literal about it, and I'm not sure if this will dissipate your various strong emotions on the subject, but he was actually stolen right from over me.

Ralph Nickleby:
Stop parroting me.

Newman Noggs:
I wish I was a parrot. Then I would fly away.

Ralph Nickleby:
I wish you were a parrot, too. I'd wring your neck.

Lord Verisopht:
If you had only told him who you were as he asked... I was wrong too, not to interfere. I did not sleep the night for thinking about it.

Ralph Nickleby:
Any mistakes that were made were made by the boy. I am his uncle and even I can see that he is no good.

Lord Verisopht:
He was defending the honor of his sister. That is the very definition of goodness. How can you not be proud of what he has done in defense of your own niece?

Ralph Nickleby:
You will be glad, my lord, that I possess such an unsentimental view when I am managing your investments.

Lord Verisopht:
Mr. Nickleby, I am no longer sure I can make an investment with you.

Ralph Nickleby:
Because of my nephew?

Lord Verisopht:
Because of your treatment of him. And his sister. When I think of her leaving the theatre that night, I feel sick to recall it. Surely there is another way for me to expand my fortune than to enrich the tormentor of these children.

Vincent Crummles:
Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.

John Browdie:
I stuck up for thee. He said thee weren't fit to live with pigs. I said thee were.

Newman Noggs:
Are you at home?

Ralph Nickleby:
Yes.

Newman Noggs:
To anybody?

Ralph Nickleby:
Yes.

Newman Noggs:
To the tax gatherer?

Ralph Nickleby:
No.

Mr. Crummles:
But there is tragedy in the family.

Nicholas Nickleby:
The pony's family?

Mr. Crummles:
Yes... the father drank. Ended up in the circus.

Smike:
What faces will smile on me when I die? Who will comfort me that long night? They cannot come from home. They would frighten me if they did, for I shouldn't know them. No. There is no hope.

Nicholas:
Does your friend think I'm in love with her?

Tilda:
Does she think so? Of course.

Nicholas:
But I have made no such declaration.

Tilda:
Your eyes said what your mouth could not.

Nicholas:
Perhaps my mouth should say what my eyes have not. I have scarcely seen the lady three times but should I have seen her 30 or 30,000, it would be the same. I have not one thought, hope or wish connected with her unless it is part of the picture I keep in my mind of one day being able to turn my back upon this accursed place and never to think of it again with any feeling but loathing and disgust.

John Browdie:
Wait. I say Wait. I've come from the schoolhouse. Mr Squeers says he was attacked. Beaten, and nearly sensless. When he said it was thee who did it, I knew thee must nor be allowed to leave...

Nicholas:
We will not be stopped.

John Browdie:
...without my shaking your hand and saying to thee, "Job well done". Give us thee hand, will you?

Smike:
Though I would have died to make her happy it broke my heart to see. I know he loves her dearly.

Nicholas:
Kate.

Smike:
I love her.

Nicholas:
See I cannot save you. For I need saving too.

Smike:
Now. Now I can say it. I am happy.

Madeline Bray:
Nicholas, I feel you know what it's like to be without happiness... but do you know what it's like to be afraid of it? To see the world as so conniving, you cannot take pleasure in the appareance of something good... because you suspect... it is only a painted drop behind which other troubles lie. That has been my life. Every good thing has been a trick. Until you.

Mr. Crummles:
They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood but for those for whom they would give their blood.

Ralph Nickleby:
I will strike him. I will strike him, until he can be struck no more.

Ralph Nickleby:
I will put his ruin ahead of my own business! I will listen to every rumour, every rumble until I can strike him. And then I will strike him, until he can be struck no more.

Nicholas:
My father told me that the great journey of my life would be to find such a person. But, I am nearly 20 years of age and I fear he may be wrong.