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George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

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Famous George Eliot Quotes

“Fairy folk a-listening Hear the seed sprout in the spring, And for music to their dance Hear the hedgerows wake from trance, Sap that trembles into buds Sending little rhythmic floods Of fairy sound in fairy ears. Thus all beauty that appears Has birth as sound to finer sense And lighter-clad intelligence.”

LittlesSoundListeningBirthSpringEarsFolksSeedsFairyFloodBudLightersSapTranceSproutsHedgerows
Book:Daniel Deronda: Easyread Edition
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“It is a fact perhaps kept a little too much in the background, that mothers have a self larger than their maternity, and that when their sons have become taller than themselves, and are gone from them to college or into the world, there are wide spaces of their time which are not filled with praying for their boys, reading old letters, and envying yet blessing those who are attending to their shirt-buttons.”

WorldLittlesSelfFactsMotherReadingSpaceBoysGoneToo MuchCollegeSonPrayingBlessingLettersFilledWideBackgroundsShirtsButtonsAttendingMaternityOld Letters
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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“Fancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary's men, but a little uncertain also about your own. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt. Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with a game a man has to play against his fellow-men with other fellow-men for instruments.”

IfsMenLittlesPlayWould BePassionGamesEasyImaginationPiecesFellowsInstrumentsPassionateIntellectChessMathematicalFancyContemptHuman ConditionImaginaryUncertainBeatenCunningFellow ManAdversaries
Author:George Eliot
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“The men are mostly so slow, their thoughts overrun 'em, an' they can only catch 'em by the tail. I can count a stocking-top while a man's getting's tongue ready; an' when he outs wi' his speech at last, there's little broth to be made on't. It's your dead chicks take the longest hatchin'.”

MenLittlesMadeI CanLastsHe ManReadySpeechTongueEmsTailsChicksStockings
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
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“For character too is a process and an unfoldingamong our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?”

MindLittlesSelfCharacterEnergyProcessInfluencePrejudiceNativeDistinguishedTransientLiableLapsesSelf ConfidentSolicitationValued Friends
Author:George Eliot
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“We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, "Oh, nothing!" Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others.”

MenLooksLittlesHelpingHurtAnswersTearsPrideMen And WomenLipsDisappointmentDinnerMortalsUrgesBad ThingsBreakfastPaleInquiryMiddlemarchDinner Time
Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.”

YearsFirstsLittlesHas BeensStillsHomeAgeMemoriesLossCommonSweetMoonUnionsNarrativeWildernessHoneyAdamEpicHarvestConquestThornsEdenAdvancingAdam And EveClimaxMiddlemarchBourneThistlesSweet MemoriesGreat Beginnings
Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.”

MenInspirationalLooksMayChildrenLittlesHandsKidsWhiteCitiesLandAngelDestructionCalmThreateningOld Days
Book:Silas Marner
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“In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.”

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Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“May every soul that touches mine - be it the slightest contact - get there from some good; some little grace; one kindly thought; one aspiration yet unfelt; one bit of courage for the darkening sky; one gleam of faith to brave the thickening ills of life; one glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gathering mists - to make this life worthwhile.”

MayLittlesSoulBitsGraceSkyMinesBraveryBraveContactThis LifeAspirationWorthwhileGlimpseGatheringMistBrighterGleamDarkening
Author:George Eliot
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“A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar, unmistakable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge.”

ThinkingMenGivingShouldHumansWellsMayLittlesHomeEarthHeavenStarsSoundDifferencesLandAreasLaborAstronomyFamiliarHuman LifeNativeBelongingRootedAccentsIntroductionKinshipNative Land
Author:George Eliot
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