George Eliot

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

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.

Language is the archives of history.

Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right.

Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him, because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods loved him because men hated him.

Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole countryside sooner than violate the bond of professional etiquette by giving him away.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’

There was the cell where Fr. Eulalio, a thriving lunatic of eighty-six who was castigating himself for unchristian pride at having all the vowels in his name, and greatly revered for his continuous weeping, went blind in an ecstasy of such howling proportions that his canonization was assured.

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world.

When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.

Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one’s heart; but death is a splendid thing –a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.

Water is the only drink for a wise man.

Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.