George Eliot

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

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.

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

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.

Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.

Breed is stronger than pasture.

I’m out there to clean the plate. Once they’ve read what I’ve written on a subject, I want them to think, ‘That’s it!’ I think the highest aspiration people in our trade can have is that once they’ve written a story, nobody will ever try it again.

It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

The natural term of the affection of the human animal for its offspring is six years.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.

They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea.

When you’re first figuring yourself out, you care so much about what people think of you.

I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.

Who can guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?