George Eliot

Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.

Those who trust us educate us.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.

One soweth and another reapeth is a verity that applies to evil as well as good.

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

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

The way to be immortal (I mean not to die at all) is to have me for your heir. I recommend you to put me in your will and you will see that (as long as I live at least) you will never even catch cold.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

Perhaps his might be one of the natures where a wise estimate of consequences is fused in the fires of that passionate belief which determines the consequences it believes in.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

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

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.