George Eliot Quotes

... we are most of us brought up in the notion that the highest motive for not doing a wrong is something irrespective of the beings who would suffer the wrong.

Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.

Solomon's Proverbs, I think, have omitted to say, that as the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendos.

... in no part of the world is genteel visiting founded on esteem, in the absence of suitable furniture and complete dinner-service.

Fine art, poetry, that kind of thing, elevates a nation.

... there is a lightness about the feminine mind--a touch and go--music, the fine arts, that kind of thing--they should study those up to a certain point, women should; but in a light way, you know.

I think any hardship is better than pretending to do what one is paid for, and never really doing it.

But with regard to critical occasions, it often happens that all moments seem comfortably remote until the last.

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.

We are apt to think it the finest era of the world when America was beginning to be discovered, when a bold sailor, even if he were wrecked, might alight on a new kingdom.

To the receptive soul the river of life pauseth not, nor is diminished.

It is better - it shall be better with me because I have known you.

I am not magnanimous enough to like people who speak to me without seeming to see me

Animals are such agreeable friends.

Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. Even with no motive to be false, it is very hard to say the exact truth.

The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies.

If we need a true conception of the popular character to guide our sympathies rightly, we need it equally to check our theories, and direct us in their application.

Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow men beyond the bounds of our personal lot.

It is well known to all experienced minds that our firmest convictions are often dependent on subtle impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium.

Subtle impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium.

I not only want to be loved, I want to be told that I'm loved.

Of all forms of human error, prophesy is the most avoidable.

So to live is heaven; to make undying music in the world.

Better spend an extra hundred or two on your son's education, than leave it him in your will.

Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead.

Education is an asset no man can take away.

The tendency toward good in human nature has a force which no creed can utterly counteract, and which insures the ultimate triumph of that tendency over all dogmatic perversions.

He who rules must fully humor as much as he commands.

The floods of nonsense printed in the form of critical opinions seem to me a chief curse of the times, a chief obstacle to true culture.

I think I am quite wicked with roses. I like to gather them, and smell them till they have no scent left.

Don't seem to he on the lookout for crows, else you'll set other people watching.

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

The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

I never had any preference for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing.

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

I cannot imagine myself without some opinion, but I wish to have good reasons for them.

Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

On the other hand, she was disproportionately indulgent towards the failings of men, and was often heard to say that these were natural.

If Art does not enlarge men’s sympathies, it does nothing morally.

It would be narrowness to suppose that an artist can only care for the impressions of those who know the methods of his art as well as feel its effects. Art works for all whom it can touch.

But a good wife—a good unworldly woman—may really help a man, and keep him more independent.

Passion is of the nature of seed, and finds nourishment within, tending to a predominance which determines all currents towards itself, and makes the whole life its tributary.

A woman may get to love by degrees—the best fire does not flare up the soonest.

A pretty building I'm making, without either bricks or timber. I'm up i' the garret a'ready, and haven't so much as dug the foundation.

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? - an enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.

Fred dislikes the idea going into the ministry partly because he doesn't like "feeling obligated to look serious", and he centers his doubts on "what people expect of a clergyman".

Let even an affectionate Goliath get himself tied to a small tender thing, dreading to hurt it by pulling, and dreading still more to snap the cord, and which of the two, pray, will be master?

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.