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Quotes by George Eliot

English novelist (1819 - 1880)

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Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.

There's folks 'ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.

When one is grateful for something too good for common thanks, writing is less unsatisfactory than speech-one does not, at least, hear how inadequate the words are.

It is never too late to become what we might have been.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

Be courteous, be obliging, but don't give yourself over to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade.

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

Wear a smile and have friends, wear a scowl and have wrinkles.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

It's never too late to be who you might have been.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

Childhood has no forebodings, but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

But pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.

Every man who is not a monster, mathematician or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other.

Some people did what their neighbors did so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.

Our deeds are like children that are born to us;they live and act apart from our own will.

What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.

One of the tortures of jealousy is that it can never turn its eyes away from the thing that pains it.

We ust find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness.

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.

It's never too late to be what you might have been.

No evil dooms us hopelessly, except the evil we love, and desire to continue in and make no effort to escape from.

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life?

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact.

Can any man or woman choose duties? No more that they can choose their birthplace, or their father or mother.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.

I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.