George Eliot

Sir Joshua would have been glad to take her portrait; and he would have had an easier task than the historian at least in this, that he would not have had to represent the truth of change –only to give stability to one beautiful moment.

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

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

Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.

A private Life is to be preferred; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.

We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.

The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

I want someone with the proven strength to persevere, someone who knows this job and takes it seriously, someone who understands that the issues a president faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters.