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George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

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Famous George Eliot Quotes

“Are there many situations more sublimely tragic than the struggle of the soul with the demand to renounce a work which has been all the significance of its life--a significance which is to vanish as the waters which come and go where no man has need of them?”

MenNeedsHas BeensSoulWaterWorkSituationStruggleDemandTragicSignificanceComes And GoesRenounce
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“O the anguish of that thought that we can never atone to our dead for the stinted affection we gave them, for the light answers we returned to their plaints or their pleadings, for the little reverence we showed to that sacred human soul that lived so close to us, and was the divinest thing God had given us to know!”

KnowsHumansLittlesSoulLightGivenAnswersSacredAffectionReverenceAnguishHuman SoulPleading
Book:Scenes of Clerical Life
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“I might mention all the divine charms of a bright spring day, but if you had never in your life utterly forgotten yourself in straining your eyes after the mounting lark, or in wandering through the still lanes when the fresh-opened blossoms fill them with a sacred silent beauty like that of fretted aisles, where would be the use of my descriptive catalogue?”

IfsStillsUseMightWould BeEyeDivineSpringSacredSilentForgottenWanderCharmLanesAisleCataloguesLarksSpring Day
Book:Adam Bede ... Tenth edition
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“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 neighbour is good for nothing, than to enter into all the circumstances that would oblige you to modify that opinion.”

MindBlackOpinionNiceParticularCircumstancesEasierBlueGreenDistinctionBrownShadeNeighbourTroublesomeMake Up Your Mind
Book:Scenes of Clerical Life
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“I've seen pretty clear, ever since I was a young un, as religion's something else besides notions. It isn't notions sets people doing the right things--it's feelings. It's the same with the notions in religion as it is with math'matics--a man may be able to work problems straight off in's head as he sits by the fire and smokes his pipe; but if he has to make a machine or a building, he must have a will and a resolution, and love something else better than his own ease.”

PeopleIfsMenMayFeelingsProblemAbleYoungClearFireBuildingMachinesAnd LoveNotionMathSmokeEaseRight ThingResolutionPipeDoing The Right Thing
Book:Four Novels of George Eliot
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“The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.”

MenHas BeensIdeasSelfDesireOrderAnimalMoralPrinciplesDutyHigherMereSatisfactionImpressionRecognitionImpulseRisingMasterySelf MasteryBundlesMouldAnimal LifeSubordinationMoral Life
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood; doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight of long-past mornings is wrought up in the soft mellowness of the apricot; but it is gone forever from our imagination, and we can only believe in the joy of childhood.”

BelieveLongPastJoyMotherFatherImaginationMemoriesMorningGoneForeverChildhoodSunlightRecallsOur FatherBosomsOur MemoriesGladnessApricotsJoys Of Childhood
Book:Four Novels of George Eliot
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“I don't remember ever being see-saw, when I'd made my mind up that a thing was wrong. It takes the taste out o' my mouth for things, when I know I should have a heavy conscience after 'em. I've seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do what's wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see. It's like a bit o' bad workmanship--you never see th' end o' the mischief it'll do. And it's a poor look-out to come into the world to make your fellow creatures worse off instead o' better.”

KnowsWorldShouldMindLooksMadeEndsRememberBitsSinPoorClearSawsTroubleTasteCreaturesMouthsConscienceShould HaveFellowsCastsHeavyEmsMischiefBreedingWorkmanship
Book:Works
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“It is the moment when our resolution seems about to become irrevocable--when the fatal iron gates are about to close upon us--that tests our strength. Then, after hours of clear reasoning and firm conviction, we snatch at any sophistry that will nullify our long struggles, and bring us the defeat that we love better than victory.”

LongMomentsSeemsHoursLove IsStruggleClearVictoryTestsDefeatConvictionFirmReasoningIronGatesResolutionIrrevocableSophistryAfter Hours
Book:Four Novels of George Eliot
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“The disappointments of life can never, any more than its pleasures, be estimated singly; and the healthiest and most agreeable of men is exposed to that coincidence of various vexations, each heightening the effect of the other, which may produce in him something corresponding to the spontaneous and externally unaccountable moodiness of the morbid and disagreeable.”

MenMayPleasureEffectsProduceDisappointmentVariousExposedCoincidenceSpontaneousDisagreeableMorbidCorrespondingVexationMoodiness
Book:Felix Holt: The Radical
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“People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else's are transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lamp they alone are rosy.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldLyingFoolIllusionRidiculousExceptionYellowLampsTransparentCapsRosyOpaqueMiddlemarch
Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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