George Eliot

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

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.

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

People who can’t be witty exert themselves to be devout and affectionate.

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.

There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world.

Shut your mouth, close your lips, and say something!

Errors look so very ugly in persons of small means – one feels they are taking quite a liberty in going astray; whereas people of fortune may naturally indulge in a few delinquencies.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.

I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.

There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less an exception to the general rule.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.

We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.

Strange – is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.

Women tell men things that they are not likely to find out for themselves.

Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.