Nicholas Nickleby

Mr. Crummles: In every life, no matter how full or empty one's purse, there is tragedy. It is the one promise life always fulfills. Thus, happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it but to delight in it when it comes. And to add to other people's store of it. What happens if too early we lose a parent, that party on whom we rely for only everything? What did these people

[indicating Nicholas, Kate and Madeline Bray]

Mr. Crummles: do when their families shrank? They cried their tears but then they did the vital thing. They built a new family, person by person. They came to see that family need not be defined merely as though with whom they share blood, but as those for whom they would give their blood.