George Eliot Quotes
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But very little achievement is required in order to pity another man's shortcomings.
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It was not that she was out of temper, but that the world was not equal to the demands of her fine organism.
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O the anguish of the thought that we can never atone to our dead for the stinted affection we gave them.
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Howiver, I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
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What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.
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Everybody liked better to conjecture how the thing was, than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became more confident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for the incompatible.
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Some people are born to make life pretty, and others to grumble that it is not pretty enough.
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They kissed each other with a deep joy. What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?
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... it is one thing to like defiance, and another thing to like its consequences.
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Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.
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Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
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As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet, we have enough light given us to guide our own steps; as the foot-soldier who hears nothing of the councils that determine the course of the great battle he is in, hears plainly enough the word of command that they must themselves obey.
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A proud woman who has learned to submit carries all her pride to the reinforcement of her submission, and looks down with severe superiority on all feminine assumption as unbecoming.
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Conscience is harder than our enemies, Knows more, accuses with more nicety.
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The darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness.
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Grant folly's prayers that hinder folly's wish, And serve the ends of wisdom.
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Affection is the broadest basis of a good life.
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I am open to conviction on all points except dinner and debts. I hold that the one must be eaten and the other paid.
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No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
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Society never made the preposterous demand that a man should think as much about his own qualifications for making a charming girl happy as he thinks of hers for making himself happy.
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Mighty is the force of motherhood! It transforms all things by its vital heat.
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To superficial observers his chin had too vanishing an aspect, looking as if it were being gradually reabsorbed. And it did indeed cause him some difficulty about the fit of his satin stocks, for which chins were at that time useful.
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Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another.
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A suppressed resolve will betray itself in the eyes.