George Eliot

What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?

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?

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.

The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has descended into the secrets of all minds.

Words are alive; cut them and they bleed.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

Although the road is never ending, take a step and keep walking, do not look fearfully into the distance…on the path let the heart be your guide for the body is hesitant and full of fear.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

I believe in one thing only, the power of the human will

Not to be provok’d is best: But if mov’d, never correct till the Fume is spent; For every Stroke our Fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.

Good poetry seems too simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.