by acclaimed English author is set in the fictional Coketown, home to cruel factory owners and the workers they mistreat. The novel, published in 1854, captures the harsh realities of the Industrial Revolution. Among the main characters is Thomas Gradgrind, a schoolmaster who promotes practicality and a fact-based educational philosophy based in utilitarianism. His children, Louisa and Tom, suffer from his emotionally stifling methods. Mr. Gradgrind's business associate, Josiah Bounderby, is a wealthy, self-made mill owner and banker who epitomizes the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the Industrial Age.
Hard Times examines the social and economic disparities and dehumanizing effects of industrial capitalism in 19th century England. Dickens, known for classic works such as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities, is widely credited with spurring social change in the Victorian Era. These 30+ quotes from Hard Times illustrate the lasting power of his words.
The best quotes from Hard Times on social inequality and the price of capitalism
"Any capitalist ... who had made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, always professed to wonder why the sixty thousand nearest Hands didn't each make sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence."
"It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse."
"'This schoolroom is an immense town, and in it there are a million inhabitants, and only five-and-twenty are starved to death in the streets, in the course of a year."
"Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn't get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there."
"It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen's case."
"Indeed, as he eagerly sparkled at them from the cellarage before mentioned, he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts."
"Mr. Gradgrind was quite moved by his success, and by this testimony to it."
"The factory-bells had need to ring their loudest that morning."
The best quotes from Hard Times on human nature and emotions
"It is a dangerous thing to see anything in the sphere of a vain blusterer, before the vain blusterer sees it himself."
