It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Cultural  

1. The opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, referring to the time of the French Revolution.

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Example Sentences

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

From Washington Post • Apr. 23, 2023

The Los Angeles music scene of the 1970s was often analogous to late 19th century London as characterized by Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 17, 2015

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — at least in the dark, futuristic world of "Lockout's" criminal-justice system.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 11, 2012

Going Back To the Old School It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

From Newsweek • Sep. 16, 2010

Applying a well-known phrase from another time to seventeenth-century embryological theory, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness."

From Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967 by Bodemer, Charles W.