Hard Times
First editionFirst publication
1854
Literature form
Novel
Genres
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Approx. 175,000 words
Notable lines
"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!"
— First liines
It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.
"Some persons hold...that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart...."
The stranger in the land who looks into ten thousand faces for some answering look and never finds it, is in cheering society as compared with him who passes ten averted faces daily, that were once the countenances of friends.
We shall sit with lighter bosoms on the hearth, to see the ashes of our fires turn gray and cold.
— Last line
