George Eliot

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.

I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ’em to match the men.

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

Men’s men: gentle or simple, they’re much of a muchness.

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

A man’s interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

What a new face courage puts on everything!

The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.

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.

He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.

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

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.