George Eliot

You are never too old to be what you might have been.
– George Eliot

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.
– George Eliot

No man can be wise on an empty stomach.
– George Eliot

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right, and stick to it.
– George Eliot

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain
together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and
with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
– George Eliot

And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.
– George Eliot

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

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

There is nothing that will kill a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.
– George Eliot

Selfish – a judgment readily passed by those who have never tested their own power of
sacrifice.
– George Eliot

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.
– George Eliot

Might, could, would – they are contemptible auxiliaries.
– George Eliot

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much
disputation, and yet more personal liking.
– George Eliot

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
– George Eliot

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck
to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than
a defeat.
– George Eliot

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.
– George Eliot

Those who trust us educate us.
– George Eliot

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

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is
failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
– George Eliot

It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.
– George Eliot

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

Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward
with a joyful confidence.
– George Eliot

High achievements demand some other unusual qualification besides an unusual desire for
high prizes.
– George Eliot

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: It
proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
– George Eliot

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

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
– George Eliot

I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish: God Almighty made ’em to match the men.
– George Eliot

Each thought is a nail that is driven in structures that cannot decay; And the mansion at last
will be given to us as we build it each day.
– George Eliot

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
– George Eliot

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the
fact.
– George Eliot

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.
– George Eliot

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their
nearest neighbors.
– George Eliot

It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.
– George Eliot

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?
– George Eliot

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
– George Eliot

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

What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?
– George Eliot

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from
the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from
threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a
calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little
child’s.
– George Eliot

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
– George Eliot

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.
– George Eliot

The blessed work of helping the world forward, happily does not wait to be done by perfect
men.
– George Eliot

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.
– George Eliot

It will never rain roses: When we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
– George Eliot

In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course
determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good
number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.
– George Eliot

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the
world.
– George Eliot

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.
– George Eliot

The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.
– George Eliot

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass
grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side
of silence. As it is, the best of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
– George Eliot

Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
– George Eliot

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There
are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
– George Eliot

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our
children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice.
– George Eliot

It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crop.
– George Eliot

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.
– George Eliot

It is well known to all experienced minds that our firmest convictions are often dependent on
subtle impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium.
– George Eliot

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.
– George Eliot

The darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It
only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness.
– George Eliot

Life is measured by the rapidity of change, the succession of influences that modify the being.
– George Eliot

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
– George Eliot

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the
earth seeking the successive autumns.
– George Eliot

One can say everything best over a meal.
– George Eliot

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

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great
sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have
despaired and have recovered hope.
– George Eliot

In the man whose childhood has known caresses there is always a fibre of memory that can
be touched to gentle issues.
– George Eliot

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

An ingenious web of probabilities is the surest screen a wise man can place between himself
and the truth.
– George Eliot

Poetry and art and knowledge are sacred and pure.
– George Eliot

Imagination is a licensed trespasser: It has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and
peep in at windows with impunity.
– George Eliot

And when a woman’s will is as strong as the man’s who wants to govern her, half her
strength must be concealment.
– George Eliot

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult.
– George Eliot

The mother’s yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence
of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded
man.
– George Eliot

A toddling little girl is a center of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people
understand each other.
– George Eliot

What are a handful of reasonable men against a crowd with stones in their hands?
– George Eliot

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the
angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
– George Eliot

We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.
– George Eliot