George Eliot

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

All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.

There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man or woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer –committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

Would not love see returning penitence afar off, and fall on its neck and kiss it?

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

All say, How hard it is that we have to die – a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

Do that which is assigned to you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

Things do not change; we change.

Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.

Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

There is no such thing as the Queen’s English. The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!

How can you dare teach a man to read until you’ve taught him everything else first?

When one wanted one’s interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people’s tricks.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

I know no religion that destroys courtesy, civility, and kindness.

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.