George Eliot

Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.’ I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl’s life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her… I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.

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

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

You will find only what you bring in.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Which is worse? The wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.

The laws of each are convertible into the laws of any other.

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.

What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.

I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.