George Eliot Quotes
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We have all our secret sins; and if we knew ourselves we should not judge each other harshly.
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The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in return.
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If a man goes a little too far along a new road, it is usually himself that he harms more than any one else.
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When a homemaking aunt scolds a niece for following her evangelistic passion instead of domestic pursuits, her reply is interesting. First, she clarifies that God's individual call on her doesn't condemn those in more conventional roles. Then, she says she can no more ignore the cry of the lost than her aunt can the cry of her child.
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Man finds his pathways: at first they were foot-tracks, as those of the beast in the wilderness; now they are swift and invisible: his thought dives through the ocean, and his wishes thread the air: has he found all the pathways yet? What reaches him, stays with him, rules him: he must accept it, not knowing its pathway.
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... it is because sympathy is but a living again through our own past in a new form, that confession often prompts a response of confession.
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A man vows, and yet will not east away the means of breaking his vow. Is it that he distinctly means to break it? Not at all; but the desires which tend to break it are at work in him dimly, and make their way into his imagination, and relax his muscles in the very moments when he is telling himself over again the reasons for his vow.
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Loquacity with tongue or pen is its own reward -- or, punishment.
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There is hardly any contact more depressing to a young ardent creature than that of a mind in which years full of knowledge seem to have issued in a blank absence of interest or sympathy.
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I have nothing to tell except travellers' stories, which are always tiresome, like the description of a play which was very exciting to those who saw it.
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Hatred is like fire, it makes even light rubbish deadly.
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There is no feeling, perhaps, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music,--that does not make a man sing or play the better.
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Explain! Tell a man to explain how he dropped into hell! Explain my preference! I never had a PREFERENCE for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing. No other woman exists by the side of her. I would rather touch her hand if it were dead, than I would touch any other woman's living.
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I trust you as holy men trust God; you could do nought that was not pure and loving, though the deed might pierce me unto death.
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What courage and patience are wanted for every life that aims to produce anything!
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Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.
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A good horse makes short miles.
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When one wanted one's interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people's tricks.
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The sweetest of all success is that which one wins by hard exertion.
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A bachelor's children are always young: they're immortal children - always lisping, waddling, helpless, and with a chance of turning out good.
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There are new eras in one's life that are equivalent to youth-are something better than youth.
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A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.
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After all, the true seeing is within.
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There's things to put up wi' in ivery place, an' you may change an' change an' not better yourself when all's said an' done.