George Eliot Quotes

Biography

Type: Novelist

Born: 22 November 1819

Died: 22 December 1880

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the leading English novelists of the 19th century. Her novels, most famously 'Middlemarch', are celebrated for their realism and psychological insights.

George Eliot Quotes

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.. George Eliot
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved.
I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.

Let my body dwell in poverty, and my hands be as the hands of the toiler;
Let my body dwell in poverty, and my hands be as the hands of the toiler; but let my soul be as a temple of remembrance where the treasures of knowledge enter and the inner sanctuary is hope.

We learn words by rote, but not their meaning; that must be paid for with our
We learn words by rote, but not their meaning; that must be paid for with our life-blood, and printed in the subtle fibres of our nerves.

I am not imposed upon by fine words; I can see what actions mean.. George Eliot
I am not imposed upon by fine words; I can see what actions mean.

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? - an enfolding of immeasurable
For what is love itself, for the one we love best? - an enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.

Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and
Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.

We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably
We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably and perhaps been staring at us in private while we have been making up our world entirely without it.

What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined
What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life-to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.. George Eliot
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.. George Eliot
Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.

Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.. George Eliot
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing
But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.. George Eliot
It is never too late to be what you might have been.

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

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings –
It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult....Examine your words well, and you will find that even
Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult....Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings - much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.. George Eliot
People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.

Upon my word, I think the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with..
Upon my word, I think the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.

She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest
She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world.

It is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.

What should I do - how should I act now, this very day . . . What she would resolve to do that day did not yet seem quite clear, but something that she could achieve stirred her as with an approaching murmur which would soon gather distinctness.

Duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly - something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us, and who breaks his leg within our gates.

I never had any preference for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing.

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.

O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude...

It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.

Poetry and art and knowledge are sacred and pure.

To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern, that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel, that discernment is but a hand playing with finely-ordered variety on the chords of emotion-a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge.

Everybody liked better to conjecture how the thing was, than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became more confident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for the incompatible.

Most of us who turn to any subject with 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.

Those who trust us educate us.

It is very difficult to be learned; it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.

Religious ideas have the fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the world, are taken up by all sorts of instruments, some of them woefully coarse, feeble, or out of tune, until people are in danger of crying out that the melody itself is detestable.

In bitter manuscript remarks on other men's notions about solar deities, he had become indifferent to the sunlight.

When a man has seen the woman whom he would have chosen if he had intended to marry speedily, his remaining a bachelor will usually depend on her resolution rather than on his.

Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

Fear was stronger than the calculation of probabilities.

It is a mere cowardice to seek safety in negations. No character becomes strong in that way. You will be thrown into the world some day and then every rational satisfaction your nature that you deny now will assault like a savage appetite.

There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.

What could two men, so different from each other, see in this "brown patch", as Mary called hereself? It was certainly not her plainness that attracted them (and let all plain young ladies be warned against the dangerous encouragement given them by Society to confinde in their want of beauty)

A pretty building I'm making, without either bricks or timber. I'm up i' the garret a'ready, and haven't so much as dug the foundation.

If Art does not enlarge men’s sympathies, it does nothing morally.

He had no ideal world of dead heroes; he knew little of the life of men in the past; he must find the beings to whom he could cling with loving admiration among those who came within speech of him.

I would rather not be engaged. When people are engaged, they begin to think of being married soon, and I should like everything to go on for a long while just as it is.

A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion coolly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.

But a good wife - a good unworldly woman - may really help a man, and keep him more independent.

But if she can marry blood, beauty, and bravery - the sooner the better.

What! your wisdom thinks I must love the man I'm going to marry? The most unpleasant thing in the world. I should quarrel with him; I should be jealous of him; our menage would be conducted in a very ill-bred manner. A little quiet contempt contributes greatly to the elegance of life. ("The Lifted Veil")

No anguish I have had to bear on your account has been too heavy a price to pay for the new life into which I have entered in loving you.

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts - not to hurt others.

In our instinctive rebellion against pain, we are children again, and demand an active will to wreak our vengeance on.

Attempts at description are stupid. Who can all at once describe a human being? Even when he is presented to us we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances.

Our deeds determine us, as long as we determine our deeds

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

I suppose it's the name: there's a deal in the name of a tune.

I should be glad to see a good change in anybody, Mr. Godfrey.' she answered, with the slightest discernible difference of tone, 'but it 'ud be better if no change was wanted.

The existence of insignificant people has very important consequences in the world. It can be shown to affect the price of bread and the rate of wages, to call forth many evil tempers from the selfish and many heroisms from the sympathetic, and, in other ways, to play no small part in the tragedy of life.

Let even an affectionate Goliath get himself tied to a small tender thing, dreading to hurt it by pulling, and dreading still more to snap the cord, and which of the two, pray, will be master?

Her future, she thought, was likely to be worse than her past, for after her years of contented renunciation, she had slipped back into desire and longing; she found joyless days of distasteful occupation harder and harder; she found the image of the intense and varied life she yearned for, and despaired of, becoming more and more importunate.

Certainly the determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and novel impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.

If a man means to be hard, let him keep in his saddle and speak from that height, above the level of pleading eyes, and with the command of a distant horizon.

All choice of words is slang. It marks a class.” “There is correct English: that is not slang.” “I beg your pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets.

Fred dislikes the idea going into the ministry partly because he doesn't like "feeling obligated to look serious", and he centers his doubts on "what people expect of a clergyman".

Passion is of the nature of seed, and finds nourishment within, tending to a predominance which determines all currents towards itself, and makes the whole life its tributary.

She hates everything that is not what she longs for.

Blameless people are always the most exasperating.

A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.

Society never made the preposterous demand that a man should think as much about his own qualifications for making a charming girl happy as he thinks of hers for making himself happy.

He was unique to her among men because he’s impressed her as being not her admirer her superior. In some mysterious way he was becoming a part of her conscience as one woman who’s nature is an object of reverential belief may become a new conscience to a man.

I desire no future that will break the ties of the past.

A medical man likes to make psychological observations, and sometimes in the pursuit of such studies is too easily tempted into momentous prophecy which life and death easily set at nought.

In bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a present which offers some resistance to the past - sensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories.

Bodily haste and exertion usually leave our thoughts very much at the mercy of our feelings and imagination.

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