George Eliot

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

A mother’s yearning feels the presence of the cherished child even in the degraded man.

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the dear deceit of beauty.

Anger makes dull men witty – but it keeps them poor.

This gives force to the strong — that the multitude have no habit of self-reliance or original action.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.

We need not worry so much about what man descends from; it’s what he descends to that shames the human race.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig-leaf.

Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow.

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness.

The quieter you become, you more you are able to hear.