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George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

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Famous George Eliot Quotes

“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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“Marriage is so unlike everything else. There is something even awful in the nearness it brings. Even if we loved someone else better than - than those we were married to, it would be no use. I mean, marriage drinks up all our power of giving or getting any blessedness in that sort of love. I know it may be very dear, but it murders our marriage, and then the marriage stays with us like a murder, and everything else is gone.”

IfsKnowsGivingMayMeanUseWould BeGoneDrinkMarriedMurderDearAwfulBlessedness
Author:George Eliot
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“If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified: by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.”

IfsLooksEnoughMomentsActionPerfectResultsViewsConsequencePhilosopherPoint Of ViewCombinationPresent MomentProvidenceJustifiedOur ActionsComplacencyAdoptingConsequences Of Our Actions
Book:Four Novels of George Eliot
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“If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new. We are told that the oldest inhabitants in Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock, and reflect that there are plenty more to come.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“Nature repairs her ravages, but not all. The uptorn trees are not rooted again; the parted hills are left scarred; if there is a new growth, the trees are not the same as the old, and the hills underneath their green vesture bear the marks of the past rending. To the eyes that have dwelt on the past, there is no thorough repair.”

IfsEyePastLeftGrowthNatureTreeBearsMarkGreenHillsRootedThoroughNew Growth
Book:The Mill on the Floss
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“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”

IfsGivingMayStillsSoulEarthSpiritFallPerfectAirTreeBirdSeekingAutumnMelancholyDecayScentDeliciousRestlessFootstepsReposeMigrationHueConsultingFall AutumnFall SeasonHecticAutumn SeasonAutumn DaysAutumn LoveRestless Spirit
Book:George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals
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“Explain! Tell a man to explain how he dropped into hell! Explain my preference! I never had a PREFERENCE for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing. No other woman exists by the side of her. I would rather touch her hand if it were dead, than I would touch any other woman's living.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a person's death consecrates him or her anew to us. It is as if life were not sacred too, as if it were comparatively a small thing to fail in love and reverence to the brother or sister who has to climb the whole toilsome mountain with us. It seems as if all our tears and tenderness were due to the one who is spared that hard journey.”

IfsPersonsHardWholeSeemsDeathFailingJourneyTearsBrotherMountainWeaknessSacredDuesClimbsReverenceTendernessSmall ThingsHard Journey
Author:George Eliot
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“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”

IfsSoulEarthFallNatureBirdSeekingAutumnSeptemberDeliciousOctoberNovemberInspirational NatureFall AutumnFall SeasonAutumn SeasonAutumn DaysOctober And FallFalling LeavesEquinoxNovember PoemsAutumn InspirationalAutumn LoveFallen LeavesAutumn EquinoxAutumnal EquinoxRestless Spirit
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?”

IfsLifeInspirationalMotivationalDifficultFreedomMarriageWiseCharitySmileInspirational LoveReach OutPhilanthropyFriendship MemoriesGiving InHelping Each OtherKindness To OthersGenerosity And KindnessKindness GenerosityGiving To OthersMarriage ProblemsSelf GivingPhilanthropy GivingHappy RelationshipInspirational RelationshipHealthy MarriageRelationship ProblemDoing For OthersDifficult RelationshipWry Smile
Author:George Eliot
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“Ah! but the moods lie in his nature, my boy, just as much as his reflections did, and more. 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.”

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Book:Four Novels of George Eliot
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