George Eliot

The desire to conquer is itself a sort of subjection.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

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.

Those who trust us educate us.

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.

This is the comfort of the godly: the grave cannot hold them, and they live as soon as they die. For death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity.

I recall a most ingenious piece in a Wisconsin quarterly some years ago in which ‘The Recognitions’ ’ debt to ‘Ulysses’ was established in such minute detail I was doubtful of my own firm recollection of never having read ‘Ulysses.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.

The ordinary man is an anarchist. He wants to do as he likes. He may want his neighbor to be governed, but he himself doesn’t want to be governed. He is mortally afraid of government officials and policemen.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

Think with your whole body.

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

There’s a great joy in my giving. It’s thrilling. It’s exhilarating. It’s important to be a part of sharing. It is my love. It is my joy.

Which is worse? The wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.