Quotessence
Home / Authors / George Eliot
George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsMayThinkingKnowsPeopleHumansLiteratureWorldLoveSoulSeemsMindLittlesMiddlemarchLifeShouldFeelingsWellsGiving

Famous George Eliot Quotes

“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
Create image

“There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their own lives--when the slow urgency of growing generations turns into the tread of an invading army or the dire clash of civil war, and grey fathers know nothing to seek for but the corpses of their blooming sons, and girls forget all vanity to make lint and bandages which may serve for the shattered limbs of their betrothed husbands.”

KnowsWorldMayWarSoulMomentsTurnsGirlReadingFatherForgetDestinyGrowingGenerationsMankindMovementSonTerribleHusbandArmyNewspapersVanityCivil WarGreyLimbsNeglectedCorpsesClashEarthquakesUrgencyShatteredBloomingAloofInvadingBandages
Book:Daniel Deronda
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“Lord! Thou art with Thy people still; they see Thee in the night-watches, and their hearts burn within them as Thou talkest with them by the way. And Thou art near to those that have not known Thee; open their eyes that they may see Thee--see Thee weeping over them, and saying, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life"--see Thee hanging on the cross and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"--see Thee as Thou wilt come again in Thy glory to judge them at the last. Amen.”

PeopleKnowsWayHeartMayArtStillsMightEyeLastsNightFatherPrayerKnownLordWatchesJudgingGloryCrossesForgivingTheeWeepingAmenHanging On
Book:Adam Bede
Create image

“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
Create image

“... it is one of the gains of advancing age that the good of young creatures becomes a more definite intense joy to us. With that renunciation for ourselves which age inevitably brings, we get more freedom of soul to enter into the life of others; what we can never learn they will know, and the gladness which is a departed sunlight to us is rising with the strength of morning to them.”

KnowsSoulAgeYoungJoyMorningCreaturesGainsIntenseRisingSunlightDefiniteAdvancingLives Of OthersRenunciationGladnessDeparted
Book:Life and letters
Create image

“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
Create image

“But indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable; and we all know the difficulty of carrying out a resolve when we secretly long that it may turn out to be unnecessary. In such states of mind the most incredulous person has a private leaning towards miracle: impossible to conceive how our wish could be fulfilled, still - very wonderful things have happened!”

KnowsMindMayPersonsLongStillsStatesTurnsWishVisionWonderfulImpossibleHappenedAmbitionWeakMiracleDifficultyEaseResolveState Of MindFulfilledUnnecessaryWonderful ThingsHabitual
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
Create image

“He was one of those men, and they are not the commonest, of whom we can know the best only by following them away from the marketplace, the platform, and the pulpit, entering with them into their own homes, hearing the voice with which they speak to the young and aged about their own hearthstone, and witnessing their thoughtful care for the everyday wants of everyday companions, who take all their kindness as a matter of course, and not as a subject for panegyric.”

KnowsMenWantMatterHomeCareYoungCoursesSpeakVoiceKindnessSubjectsEverydayFollowingHearingLifestyleThoughtfulCompanionPlatformsEnteringMarketplacePulpit
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
Create image