George Eliot

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

There is nothing that will kill a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.

Who has not felt the beauty of a woman’s arm? The unspeakable suggestions of tenderness that lie in the dimpled elbow, and all the varied gently-lessening curves, down to the delicate wrist, with its tiniest, almost imperceptible nicks in the firm softness.

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place you belong.

A verse from the Veda says, ‘What you see, you become.’ In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Responsibilities are given to him on whom trust rests. Responsibility is always a sign of trust.

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

Wherever there is power there is age.

Never waste jealousy on a real man: it is the imaginary man that supplants us all in the long run.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.