George Eliot

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

All the learnin’ my father paid for was a bit o’ birch at one end and an alphabet at the other.

There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds – not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but – a hatred of all injury.

Each thought is a nail that is driven In structures that cannot decay; And the mansion at last will be given To us as we build it each day.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

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

I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much of it.

Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

The billiard table is better than the doctor.

A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge may play a little at cards for his own amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthing in the Piazza.

Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

No man acquires property without acquiring with it a little arithmetic also.

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

Nothing astonishes people so much as common sense and plain dealing.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.