George Eliot

Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.

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

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

Bondage is… subjection to external influences and internal negative thoughts and attitudes.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

The masses have no habit of self reliance or original action.

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother’s milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

Fueling your body is a process… The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.