George Eliot

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.

When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.

Our strength grows out of our weakness.

Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

The office of the scholar is to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances. He plies the slow, unhonored, and unpaid task of observation. He is the world’s eye.

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.