George Eliot

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.

How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances? No more than he can be satisfied with his hat, which he’s chosen from among such shapes as the resources of the age offer him, wearing it at best with a resignation which is chiefly supported by comparison.

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

It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one’s own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.

Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

Common people do not pray; they only beg.

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.

Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.

The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.