65 A Christmas Carol Quotes from Scrooge
“Bah!” and “Humbug!” – two short bursts of December gloom, and the words most people know Scrooge by.
But the miser of Stave 1 is only half the man. The same mouth that sneered at Christmas later says, “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.” That distance – from sneer to song – is why A Christmas Carol quotes from Scrooge keep getting copied into essays, church bulletins, and Christmas cards nearly two centuries after Dickens wrote them.
You’ll find 65 lines below, every one spoken by Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s 1843 novella. They’re numbered and arranged by stave so you can trace his change line by line. Students get citation-ready text with stave references. Teachers get discussion material. Readers carrying a heavy heart into the holidays get the story of a man who was handed a second chance and took it.
A Christmas Carol Quotes from Scrooge: Start With the Famous Ones
Short on time? Jump straight to the numbers you need:
- The catchphrase: quotes 1–2
- The cold dismissal of Christmas: 5 and 7
- The cruelty of the poor law: 12, 20, 51
- The great vow: 59
- The Christmas-morning reversal: 60, 62, 65
The full stave-by-stave list follows.
Stave 1: The Cold Heart Speaks First
Dickens gives Scrooge some of the sharpest dialogue in Victorian fiction here. The language is clipped, dismissive, and oddly funny – which is exactly why it stings.
On Christmas and Humbug
1. “Bah!” Stave 1
2. “Humbug!” Stave 1
3. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” Stave 1
4. “What else can I be, when I live in such a world of fools as this?” Stave 1
5. “Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas!” Stave 1
6. “What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?” Stave 1
7. “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!” Stave 1
8. “Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.” Stave 1
9. “Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!” Stave 1
10. “I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.” Stave 1
11. “Because you fell in love!” Stave 1
Dickens splits “Bah!” and “Humbug!” across separate speeches, a small technical detail worth knowing if you’re quoting for an exam. Quote 6 is the one students underestimate: it’s not just bad temper, it’s an economic argument, and Scrooge delivers it like a balance sheet.
On the Poor and the Business of Mankind
12. “Are there no prisons?” Stave 1
13. “And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?” Stave 1
14. “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” Stave 1
15. “I’m very glad to hear it.” Stave 1
16. “Nothing!” Stave 1
17. “I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer.” Stave 1
18. “I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.” Stave 1
19. “I help to support the establishments I have mentioned-they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.” Stave 1
20. “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Stave 1
21. “It’s not my business. It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!” Stave 1
22. “A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” Stave 1
Quote 20 is the most quoted – and the one that comes back to haunt him in Stave 3, when the Ghost of Christmas Present throws the words back at his face. That echo is the spine of the book’s argument about social responsibility.
Marley’s Ghost
23. “What do you want with me?” Stave 1
24. “Who are you?” Stave 1
25. “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!” Stave 1
26. “Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?” Stave 1
27. “I do. I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?” Stave 1
28. “You are fettered. Tell me why?” Stave 1
29. “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” Stave 1
30. “Jacob, Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!” Stave 1
31. “You were always a good friend to me. Thank’ee!” Stave 1
32. “Couldn’t I take ’em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?” Stave 1
Quote 25 gets laughed at, but it’s a frightened man bargaining with his own senses. And quote 29 is the line that detonates: Marley’s reply – that mankind was his business – dismantles Scrooge’s entire value system in a single sentence.
Stave 2: “I Was a Boy Here”
33. “Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?” Stave 2
34. “I was bred in this place. I was a boy here.” Stave 2
35. “Poor boy!” Stave 2
36. “Why, it’s Ali Baba!” Stave 2
37. “It’s dear old honest Ali Baba!” Stave 2
38. “And Valentine, and his wild brother, Orson; there they go!” Stave 2
39. “Serve him right. I’m glad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess!” Stave 2
40. “There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all.” Stave 2
41. “So she had. You’re right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!” Stave 2
42. “It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” Stave 2
43. “I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now! That’s all.” Stave 2
44. “Remove me! I cannot bear it!” Stave 2
45. “No more! No more. I don’t wish to see it. Show me no more!” Stave 2
46. “Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!” Stave 2
Watch the grammar of quote 40: “I should like to have given him something.” Dickens shifts into the perfect infinitive to signal regret about a moment already gone. Quote 43 repeats the pattern about Bob Cratchit. Two small kindnesses he didn’t perform, and both come back to him before morning.
Stave 3: Empathy Wakes Up
47. “Spirit, conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.” Stave 3
48. “Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.” Stave 3
49. “No, no. Oh no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.” Stave 3
50. “Spirit, are they yours?” Stave 3
51. “Have they no refuge or resource?” Stave 3
Quote 51 is the turn. A man who asked “Are there no prisons?” in Stave 1 now asks whether children have anywhere to go – and the Spirit answers with his own words from quote 20. That’s Dickens’s craft in miniature, and it’s worth pointing out in any essay on redemption in the novella.
Stave 4: Fear, Then Repentance
52. “Ghost of the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen.” Stave 4
53. “But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart.” Stave 4
54. “Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!” Stave 4
55. “Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or that dark chamber, Spirit, which we left just now, will be for ever present to me.” Stave 4
56. “Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” Stave 4
57. “Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!” Stave 4
58. “Spirit! hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?” Stave 4
59. “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!” Stave 4
Quote 56 is theology in a question mark: are the visions fixed fate or open possibility? Everything Scrooge does in Stave 5 depends on the answer he begs for.
Stave 5: The Morning After
60. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.” Stave 5
61. “I am as giddy as a drunken man.” Stave 5
62. “A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!” Stave 5
63. “I don’t know what day of the month it is! I don’t know how long I’ve been among the Spirits. I don’t know anything. I’m quite a baby.” Stave 5
64. “It’s Christmas Day! I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like.” Stave 5
65. “A merry Christmas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!” Stave 5
The triple repetition in quote 60 (“as light… as happy… as merry”) is deliberately childlike. After all that talk of surplus population and ledgers, Scrooge’s language collapses into similes a schoolboy would use – and that’s the point.
Quotes About Scrooge, Not by Him
| Quote | Speaker | Stave |
|---|---|---|
| “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more… He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew.” | Narrator | Stave 5 |
| “I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!” | Fred | Stave 1 |
| “God bless us, every one!” | Tiny Tim | Stave 5 |
Lines People Get Wrong
A few of the most-shared A Christmas Carol quotations are not Scrooge’s at all.
“God bless us, every one!” belongs to Tiny Tim, not the old man. “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour” is the narrator. “No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused” is also narration, despite turning up on countless Scrooge quote pages.
If you need to verify a line, check the stave number against a full text before you print it. For a wider look at how Dickens builds the story’s themes, our A Christmas Carol quotes analysis walks through the imagery of cold, fire, and isolation.
Putting These Quotes to Work
For essays. Pair quotes across staves rather than listing them – quote 20 against quote 51, or quote 7 against quote 62. Show the reversal, not just the line.
For cards and captions. Short and warm works best: quote 62 or the first clause of quote 60. If you want seasonal lines beyond Dickens, these C.S. Lewis Christmas quotes pair beautifully with a simple card design.
For church programs and group discussion. Use quote 59 as a responsive reading and quote 58 as a call to reflection. You’ll find more ready-to-use lines in this collection of holiday quotes, and quote 51 makes a strong opening for any conversation about charity.
For teachers. Ask students to track one word through the novella – “business,” “merry,” or “spirit” – and chart how Scrooge’s usage shifts from Stave 1 to Stave 5.
A Prayer Inspired by Scrooge’s Conversion
Lord, you met Scrooge in the dark and did not leave him there. Meet us too, in whatever corner of December we’re hiding. Break the humbug in our speech, soften what has gone cold, and show us the people we’ve trained ourselves not to see. Give us the courage of quote 58 – to be not the men and women we were – and the joy of quote 62, offered to everybody and not just to those who deserve it. Amen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Scrooge’s most famous quote?
A: “Bah! Humbug!” is the one almost everyone knows, but “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year” is the line most often quoted for its hope. Both are authentic Scrooge.
Q: What does “Bah! Humbug!” actually mean?
A: It’s a double dismissal – “bah” as an exclamation of disgust, “humbug” as a word for nonsense or fraud. Scrooge is calling Christmas cheer both stupid and fake in two syllables.
Q: Is “God bless us, every one!” a Scrooge quote?
A: No. Tiny Tim says it at the end of Stave 5, and it’s one of the most misattributed lines in English literature. Scrooge’s own closing line is quote 65, spoken to Bob Cratchit.
Q: Where can I find A Christmas Carol quotes from Scrooge with page numbers?
A: Page numbers shift between editions, so stave references are the safer citation. Every quote above includes its stave, which works across Penguin, Oxford, and public-domain texts.
Q: How many lines does Scrooge speak in the novella?
A: Dozens. This page curates 65 of the most significant, weighted toward Stave 1 – where he speaks most – and Stave 5, where his voice changes completely.
Q: Which short Scrooge quotes work best on a Christmas card?
A: “A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!” and “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.” Both are brief, warm, and unmistakably his.
Scrooge’s voice carries the whole arc of Dickens’s story – from the frost of “Out upon merry Christmas!” to the glad shout of “A merry Christmas to everybody!” Read together, these A Christmas Carol quotes from Scrooge do more than fill an essay or decorate a card. They sketch a portrait of a person who was shown his own life clearly and chose to live it differently.
Choose one line from this list and carry it into the week. Write it on a card, sit with it in prayer, or send it to someone who needs the reminder that no heart is too hard and no past too broken. Then come back and explore more Christmas reflections and prayers – because the best Scrooge quotes were never meant to stay on the page.