Famous Quotes from ...

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.... George Eliot {view}
  • 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 {view}
  • If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence... George Eliot {view}
  • It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the ''dear deceit'' of beauty.... George Eliot {view}
  • [T]here 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. . .... George Eliot {view}
  • In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness... George Eliot {view}
  • 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.... George Eliot {view}
  • 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 {view}
  • It is never too late to be what you might have been.... George Eliot {view}
  • Formerly, his heart had been as a locked casket with its treasure inside; but now the casket was empty, and the lock was broken. Left groping in darkness, with his prop utterly gone, Silas had inevitably a sense, though a dull and half-despairing one, that if any help came to him it must come from without; and there was a slight stirring of expectation at the sight of his fellow-men, a faint consciousness of dependence on their goodwill.... George Eliot {view}
  • Death is the king of this world: 'Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.... George Eliot {view}
  • Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.... George Eliot {view}
  • 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 {view}
  • That farewell kiss which resembles greeting, that last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow.... George Eliot {view}
  • Perfect love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the relation of the least-instructed human beings...... George Eliot {view}
  • The years seem to rush by now, and I think of death as a fast approaching end of a journey - double and treble the reason for loving as well as working while it is day... George Eliot {view}
  • Education was almost always a matter of luck usually ill luck in those distant days.... George Eliot {view}
  • The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature . . .... George Eliot {view}
  • When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity.... George Eliot {view}
  • There is a sort of subjection which is the peculiar heritage of largeness and of love; and strength is often only another name for willing bondage to irremediable weakness.... George Eliot {view}
  • I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out... George Eliot {view}
  • Where women love each other, men learn to smother their mutual dislike.... George Eliot {view}
  • 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 kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of literature and speech and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.... George Eliot {view}
  • A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.... George Eliot {view}
  • We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share of the more independent life / some joy in things for their own sake. It is piteous to see the helplessness of some sweet women when their affections are disappointed / because all their teaching has been, that they can only delight in study of any kind for the sake of a personal love. They have never contemplated an independent delight in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. Yet surely women need this defense against passionate affliction even more than men.... George Eliot {view}