George Eliot Quotes

Most popular George Eliot Quotes

Consequences are unpitying. - George Eliot quote.
Consequences are unpitying.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

consequences

Correct English is the slang of prigs. - George Eliot quote.
Correct English is the slang of prigs.
— George Eliot

language

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. - George Eliot quote.
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.
— George Eliot Silas Marner

expectation

Time, like money, is measured by our needs. - George Eliot quote.
Time, like money, is measured by our needs.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

time

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust? - George Eliot quote.
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
— George Eliot Middlemarch

loneliness trust

Truth has rough flavors if we bite it through. - George Eliot quote.
Truth has rough flavors if we bite it through.
— George Eliot Armgart

truth

Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness! - George Eliot quote.
Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!
— George Eliot The Spanish Gypsy

friendship

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. - George Eliot quote.
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
— George Eliot

poverty Giving

Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. - George Eliot quote.
Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

family

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive. - George Eliot quote.
What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.
— George Eliot
A man must be poor to know the luxury of giving. - George Eliot quote.
A man must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
— George Eliot
Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty. - George Eliot quote.
Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

kindness

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would. - George Eliot quote.
Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.
— George Eliot The Spanish Gypsy

words

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities. - George Eliot quote.
Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

ignorance

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

inspirational

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us. - George Eliot quote.
There is a great deal of unmapped country within us.
— George Eliot
Wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest. - George Eliot quote.
Wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, the Radical

wit

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. - George Eliot quote.
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

duty

We want people to feel with us more than to act for us. - George Eliot quote.
We want people to feel with us more than to act for us.
— George Eliot
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. - George Eliot quote.
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
— George Eliot
Hatred is like fire—it makes even light rubbish deadly. - George Eliot quote.
Hatred is like fire—it makes even light rubbish deadly.
— George Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life

hate

And the intensest form of hatred is that rooted in fear. - George Eliot quote.
And the intensest form of hatred is that rooted in fear.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

hate

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our needs. - George Eliot quote.
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our needs.
— George Eliot
Biographies generally are a disease of English literature. - George Eliot quote.
Biographies generally are a disease of English literature.
— George Eliot

biography

We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves. - George Eliot quote.
We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

mercy

The reward of one duty done is the power to fulfill another. - George Eliot quote.
The reward of one duty done is the power to fulfill another.
— George Eliot
It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient. - George Eliot quote.
It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

patience

It's but little good you'll do a-watering the last year's crop. - George Eliot quote.
It's but little good you'll do a-watering the last year's crop.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

the past

There is no killing the suspicion that deceit has once begotten. - George Eliot quote.
There is no killing the suspicion that deceit has once begotten.
— George Eliot Romola

suspicion deceit

I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. - George Eliot quote.
I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

choice growth

There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder. - George Eliot quote.
There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, The Radical

hate

He was like a cock, who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. - George Eliot quote.
He was like a cock, who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

arrogance

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. - George Eliot quote.
A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

humor joking

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. - George Eliot quote.
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
— George Eliot
A difference of tastes in jokes is a great strain on the affections. - George Eliot quote.
A difference of tastes in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
— George Eliot
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he christened it persecution. - George Eliot quote.
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he christened it persecution.
— George Eliot Janet’s Repentance

persecution opposition

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up. - George Eliot quote.
Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

friendship gratitude

We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been. - George Eliot quote.
We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.
— George Eliot
What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? - George Eliot quote.
What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
— George Eliot

service purpose of life

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love. - George Eliot quote.
Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.
— George Eliot The Mill on the Floss

jealousy anger

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God Almighty made 'em to match the men. - George Eliot quote.
I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
— George Eliot

men and women

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

genius

When a workman knows the use of his tools, he can make a door as well as a window. - George Eliot quote.
When a workman knows the use of his tools, he can make a door as well as a window.
— George Eliot The Mill on the Floss

ability skill

Watch your own speech, and notice how it is guided by your less conscious purposes. - George Eliot quote.
Watch your own speech, and notice how it is guided by your less conscious purposes.
— George Eliot
Her own misery filled her heart; there was no room in it for other people's sorrow. - George Eliot quote.
Her own misery filled her heart; there was no room in it for other people's sorrow.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

self-pity misery

Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. - George Eliot quote.
Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
— George Eliot
There's good chances and bad chances, and nobody's luck is pulled only by one string. - George Eliot quote.
There's good chances and bad chances, and nobody's luck is pulled only by one string.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, The Radical

luck

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. - George Eliot quote.
Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.
— George Eliot
Pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion. - George Eliot quote.
Pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

compassion pain

It was as useless to fight against the interpretations of ignorance as to whip the fog. - George Eliot quote.
It was as useless to fight against the interpretations of ignorance as to whip the fog.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

ignorance

There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room. - George Eliot quote.
There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

answers

And 'tis a strange truth that only in the agony of parting we look into the depths of love. - George Eliot quote.
And 'tis a strange truth that only in the agony of parting we look into the depths of love.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, the Radical

agony

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world. - George Eliot quote.
Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

excellence

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. - George Eliot quote.
The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, The Radical

purpose of life

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside itself—it only requires opportunity. - George Eliot quote.
Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside itself—it only requires opportunity.
— George Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life

cruelty

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. - George Eliot quote.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
— George Eliot
No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence. - George Eliot quote.
No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
— George Eliot Romola

trust the human condition

When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning, there are many ways of escaping from its bonds. - George Eliot quote.
When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning, there are many ways of escaping from its bonds.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

gratitude

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say,abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. - George Eliot quote.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say,abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
— George Eliot
Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return. - George Eliot quote.
Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

vanity

One of the tortures of jealousy is that it can never turn away its eyes from the thing that pains it. - George Eliot quote.
One of the tortures of jealousy is that it can never turn away its eyes from the thing that pains it.
— George Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life

jealousy

If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us. - George Eliot quote.
If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

youth

Justice is like the Kingdom of God—it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning. - George Eliot quote.
Justice is like the Kingdom of God—it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning.
— George Eliot Romola

justice

That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure o' one fool as 'ull tell him he's wise. - George Eliot quote.
That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure o' one fool as 'ull tell him he's wise.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

men

I...am reading aloud in a clerkly manner from a book which hath been culled from the flowers of all books. - George Eliot quote.
I...am reading aloud in a clerkly manner from a book which hath been culled from the flowers of all books.
— George Eliot The Spanish Gypsy

anthology

Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state. - George Eliot quote.
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

suffering

It is hardly an argument against a man's general strength of character that he should be mastered by love. - George Eliot quote.
It is hardly an argument against a man's general strength of character that he should be mastered by love.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

character

All of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them. - George Eliot quote.
All of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

metaphor

No story is the same to us after the lapse of time: or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters. - George Eliot quote.
No story is the same to us after the lapse of time: or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
— George Eliot
At the last moment there is always a reason not existing before—namely, the impossibility of further vacillation. - George Eliot quote.
At the last moment there is always a reason not existing before—namely, the impossibility of further vacillation.
— George Eliot

decision-making

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure. - George Eliot quote.
Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

striving perseverance failure

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from. - George Eliot quote.
No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

evil

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart. - George Eliot quote.
Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.
— George Eliot The Mill on the Floss

jealousy

Of a truth, knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be. - George Eliot quote.
Of a truth, knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be.
— 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. - George Eliot quote.
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.
— George Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life

courage

Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour's buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder. - George Eliot quote.
Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour's buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.
— George Eliot

glory

There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish. - George Eliot quote.
There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

beauty

An election is coming.  Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. - George Eliot quote.
An election is coming.  Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, the Radical

elections

Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends . . . to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life. - George Eliot quote.
Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends . . . to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.
— George Eliot Silas Marner

work

She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts. - George Eliot quote.
She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

sorrow

Wear a smile and have friends wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other? - George Eliot quote.
Wear a smile and have friends wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?
— George Eliot
That quiet mutual gaze of a trusting husband and wife is like the first moment of rest or refuge from a great weariness or a great danger. - George Eliot quote.
That quiet mutual gaze of a trusting husband and wife is like the first moment of rest or refuge from a great weariness or a great danger.
— George Eliot
It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old. - George Eliot quote.
It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
— George Eliot

friendship

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will have it if they cannot find it. - George Eliot quote.
It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will have it if they cannot find it.
— 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 quote.
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 Daniel Deronda

gossip

There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. - George Eliot quote.
There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence.
— George Eliot Felix Holt, the Radical

pain

A man never lies with more delicious languor under the influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he shall subdue it tomorrow. - George Eliot quote.
A man never lies with more delicious languor under the influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he shall subdue it tomorrow.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

passion

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire: it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism. - George Eliot quote.
There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire: it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

jealousy

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 quote.
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 Felix Holt, The Radical

failure

Character is not cut in marble—it is not something solid and unalterable.  It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do. - George Eliot quote.
Character is not cut in marble—it is not something solid and unalterable.  It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

character

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 quote.
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 The Mill on the Floss

wish

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. - George Eliot quote.
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.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

ignorance knowledge and ignorance

Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us; there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud. - George Eliot quote.
Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us; there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud.
— George Eliot Silas Marner

growth

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 quote.
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

nature

The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food—it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on. - George Eliot quote.
The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food—it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

hardship

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. - George Eliot quote.
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.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

awareness vision

Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say...that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us. - George Eliot quote.
Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say...that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us.
— George Eliot Adam Bede

inspirational

A man can never do anything at variance with his own nature.  He carries within him the germ of his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom. - George Eliot quote.
A man can never do anything at variance with his own nature.  He carries within him the germ of his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom.
— George Eliot Adame Bede

folly

What makes life dreary is the want of motive.
— George Eliot Daniel Deronda

motivation

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
— George Eliot Middlemarch

Giving

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

difficulties

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

helping others

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
— George Eliot

men

Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
— George Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life

animals

Our deeds still travel with us from afar,
And what we have been makes us what we are.
— George Eliot Middlemarch

deeds

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

silence holding your tongue

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
— George Eliot The Impressions of Theophrastus Such

silence

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact.
— George Eliot
An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
— George Eliot

politics