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Named source · 1844

Martin Chuzzlewit Quotes by Charles Dickens: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Martin Chuzzlewit by or associated with Charles Dickens, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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Charles Dickens’s 1843–1844 satirical novel

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Selfishness, family, hypocrisy, aging, regret, manipulation, reform and the consequences of character over time.

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“Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs; and I enjoy, in common with all other men, at least my share of such inheritance.”
Voice: Fictional character · Old Martin Chuzzlewit

Old Martin treats regret as an almost ordinary inheritance of age: living long enough produces memories of choices, estrangements and missed opportunities that cannot all be revisited without hindsight.

Source note: Martin Chuzzlewit, Chapter X, Project Gutenberg #968. Old Martin Chuzzlewit says this while speaking to Pecksniff. The scene is part of a deliberately strategic performance inside the novel, so the maxim remains attached to the character rather than being flattened into direct Dickens autobiography.