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George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

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Famous George Eliot Quotes

“We learn to restrain ourselves as we get older. We keep apart when we have quarrelled, express ourselves in well-bred phrases, and in this way preserve a dignified alienation, showing much firmness on one side, and swallowing much grief on the other. We no longer approximate in our behaviour to the mere impulsiveness of the lower animals, but conduct ourselves in every respect like members of a highly civilised society.”

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Author:George Eliot
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“Life is very difficult. It seems right to me sometimes that we should follow our strongest feelings; but then such feelings continually come across the ties that all our former life has made for us,--the ties that have made others dependent on us,--and would cut them in two.”

ShouldMadeTwoSometimesFeelingsSeemsLife IsDifficultCuttingTemptationFormerTiesDependentStrongestFormer Life
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“Poor dog! I've a strange feeling about the dumb things as if they wanted to speak, and it was a trouble to 'em because they couldn't. I can't help being sorry for the dogs always, though perhaps there's no need. But they may well have more in them than they know how to make us understand, for we can't say half what we feel, with all our words.”

IfsKnowsNeedsFeelsWellsMayI CanHelpingFeelingsWantedSpeakPoorHalfKnow HowTroubleDogStrangeSorryDumbEmsOur WordsBeing SorryDumb Things
Book:Complete Works Of George Eliot
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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 usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is - I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid, when viewed in the light of their professed principles. ... They hardly know Christ was a Jew. And I find men, educated, supposing that Christ spoke Greek. To my feeling, this deadness to the history which has prepared half our world for us, this inability to find interest in any form of life that is not clad in the same coat-tails and flounces as our own, lies very close to the worst kind of irreligion.”

KnowsMenWorldKindFeelingsLightChristianFormLyingInterestChristHalfAttitudePrinciplesWorstStupidPrejudicePreparedJewEducatedGreekSpokesOur WorldUsualTailsCoatsInabilityFind MeSupposingSupposing ThatIrreligion
Author:George Eliot
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“To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern, that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel, that discernment is but a hand playing with finely-ordered variety on the chords of emotion--a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge.”

FeelsSoulFeelingsHandsEmotionQualityPoetVarietyShadeOrgansFlashChordsDiscernment
Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind, and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. 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.”

PeopleIfsShouldHumansHeartRealFactsFeelingsWould BeLyingDiesGrowsSidesEmotionSilenceVisionMankindBearsElementsBeatsOrdinaryTragedyMovedHearingHuman LifeGrassUnusualImaginaryFrequencyDiscouragementSquirrelsHeart BeatCoarse
Author:George Eliot
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“Certainly the determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and novel impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.”

StatesFeelingsBeautifulYoungSocialResultsNovelStruggleConditionsIllusionAspectErrorsImpulseImperfectGreat FaithGreat Feelings
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“And Dorothea..she had no dreams of being praised above other women. Feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better, her full nature spent itself in deeds which left no great name on the earth, but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable. For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and on all those Dorotheas who life faithfully their hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Middlemarch”

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Author:George Eliot
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“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

LovePersonsFeelingsHandsTogetherFriendshipKindnessKnowingRelationshipFriendsComfortSafeMy FriendsBreathsWordsSmileBlowGenerosityFaithfulGrainPouringMy FriendshipLove RelationshipPeople In Your LifeFunny RelationshipAbout FriendshipLove And FriendshipFriendship LoveBeing TogetherGreat FriendshipFemale FriendshipHappy First Fathers DayFriendship GardenFriendship OverFathers Day InspirationalBeing A Good FriendCute Fathers DayFaithful FriendsSiftingInspirational RelationshipEasy FriendshipFemale FriendsFriendships And RelationshipsTimes With FriendsWords With Friends
Author:George Eliot
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“Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.”

PersonsFeelingsFriendshipRelationshipFriendsComfortSafeMy FriendsPatienceInsightfulComfortingTrue FriendTrue FriendshipBest FriendPouringMy FriendshipFriends ForeverLove RelationshipAbout FriendshipLove And FriendshipFriendship LoveOne Line FriendshipBest FriendshipInspirational FriendshipBeing TogetherGreat FriendshipFemale FriendshipHappy First Fathers DayFriendship GardenBffFriends For LifeFathers Day InspirationalFriendship And LifeBeing A Good FriendCute Fathers DaySiftingWonderful FriendshipInspirational RelationshipEasy FriendshipFemale FriendsTrue Friendship And LifeFriendships And RelationshipsWonderful FriendsLife Love And FriendshipTimes With FriendsLife Love FriendshipEncouragement For FriendsAngel FriendshipMoments With FriendsValued FriendsWords With FriendsSafe Keeping
Author:George Eliot
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“It is not ignoble to feel that the fuller life which a sad experience has brought us is worth our personal share of pain. The growth of higher feeling within us is like the growth of faculty, bringing with it a sense of added strength. We can no more wish to return to a narrower sympathy than painters or musicians can wish to return to their cruder manner, or philosophers to their less complete formulas.”

FeelsFeelingsPainWishGrowthSadnessShareReturnHigherMusicianPhilosopherPainterFacultyFormulasIgnoble
Book:George Eliot's Works
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