George Eliot

The natur o' things doesn't change, though it seems as if one's own life was nothing but change. The square o' four is sixteen, and you must lengthen your lever in proportion to your weight, is as true when a man's miserable as when he's …

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

Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. Nature, that great tragic dramatist, knits us together by bone and muscle, and divides us by the subtler web of our brains; blends yearning and repulsion; and ties us by our heart-strings to …

Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before — consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds, and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes a man’s critical actions, it will be better not to think …

We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.

Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.

It's but little good you'll do a-watering the last year's crop.

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

Who can prove Wit to be witty when with deeper ground Dulness intuitive declares wit dull?

Worldly faces, never look so worldly as at a funeral.

Blessed influence of one true, loving human soul on another. Not calculable by algebra, not deducible by logic, but mysterious, effectual, mighty as the hidden process by which the tiny seed is quickened, and bursts forth into tall stem …

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

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.

Every man who is not a monster, a mathematician, or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other.

Nice distinctions are troublesome. It is so much easier to say that a thing is black, than to discriminate the particular shade of brown, blue, or green, to which it really belongs. It is so much easier to make up your mind that your …

May I unceasingly aspire to unclothe all around me of its conventional, human, temporary dress, to look at it in its essence and in its relation to eternity.

The difficulty is, to decide how far resolution should set in the direction of activity rather than in the acceptance of a more negative state.

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.

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.

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

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 light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell …

'Tis God gives skill, But not without men's hands: He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins Without Antonio.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.