George Eliot

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

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

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’re gone.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Most of us who turn to any subject we love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within, as the first traceable beginning of our love.

Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

It isn’t safe to sit in judgment upon another person’s illusion when you are not on the inside. While you are thinking it is a dream, he may be knowing it is a planet.

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

There is nothing assured to mortals.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.

Cities give us collision. ‘Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

Round numbers are always false.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

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