George Eliot

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

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

Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit?

In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

In his private heart no man much respects himself.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

The luster of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.