George Eliot

A toddling little girl is a center of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

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

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

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.

In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.

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

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

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

Don’t think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.

It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness – calling their denial knowledge.

Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est (Knowledge Itself Is Power)

Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.

And deep in my heart. The answer, it was in me. And I made up my mind. To define my own destiny.

Your playing small does not serve the world. Who are you not to be great?

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.