George Eliot

The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles… but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief -a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

You don’t create things, you discover things.

Never read any book that is not a year old.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before.

Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.

Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

The heart is forever inexperienced.

Fueling your body is a process… The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.

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

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.