George Eliot

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?

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.

The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.

It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness – calling their denial knowledge.

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

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all. [Ut haec ipsa qui non sentiat deorum vim habere is nihil omnino sensurus esse videatur.]

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

Let us treat the men and women well: treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world – and never will.

Even the youngest of us may be wrong sometimes.

The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

Avoid inquisitive persons, for they are sure to be gossips, their ears are open to hear, but they will not keep what is entrusted to them.

Always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.

Love is only one of many passions.

He was doing missionary work. But from the outset he had little success in convincing his charges of their responsibility for a sin committed at the beginning of creation, one which, as they understood it, they were ready and capable (indeed, they carried charms to assure it) of duplicating themselves. He did no better convincing them that a man had died on a tree to save them all: an act which one old Indian, if Gwyon had translated correctly, regarded as “rank presumption”.

Why should we be cowed by the name of Action?