George Eliot

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

How does it happen, Maecenas, that no one is content with that lot of which he has chosen or which chance has thrown his way, but praises those who follow a different course?

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

The true poem is the poet’s mind.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.

It’s easier to hold onto your own stereotypes and misconceptions, it makes you feel justified in your own ignorance. That’s America. So the challenge for us is, are we ready for change?

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.

We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.