George Eliot

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

To act with doubleness towards a man whose own conduct was double, was so near an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called by no meaner name than diplomacy.

I’ve never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.

Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit?

People who can’t be witty exert themselves to be devout and affectionate.

Most of us who turn to any subject we love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within, as the first traceable beginning of our love.

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.

What right have I to grieve, who have not ceased to wonder?

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

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

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

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

Do or do not. There is no try.

When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.

Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.

Responsibilities are given to him on whom trust rests. Responsibility is always a sign of trust.

It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came first and the drunkenness afterwards, it would be moral to get drunk.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.