One should never be ashamed to cry. Tears are rain on the dust of earth.
Interpretation
Crying is a natural and healthy expression of emotions, just like rain nourishes the earth.
In this quote, Charles Dickens emphasizes the importance of expressing emotions, particularly through crying, without shame. He likens tears to rain that revitalizes and cleanses the 'dust of earth,' suggesting that emotional release is vital for personal renewal and growth, much like how rain is essential for nurturing the environment.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one might quote Dickens to remind the audience that it's okay to express emotions.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul's own doing.
You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself flowers in your veins,_x000D_ till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and_x000D_ perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than_x000D_ so, because men and women are in it who are every one sole heirs as well_x000D_ as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight, as misers do in gold, and_x000D_ kings in scepters, you never enjoy the world.
...but then the general trouble with ignorance is always that the ignorant person has no idea that that's what they are. You can be ignorant and stupid and go through your whole life without ever encountering any evidence against the hypothesis that you're a genius.
The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.
When I die, I will no be guilty of having left a generation of girls behind thinking that anyone can tend to their emotional health other than themselves.
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