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George Eliot

George Eliot Quotes

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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
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“When our life is a continuous trial, the moments of respite seem only to substitute the heaviness of dread for the heaviness of actual suffering; the curtain of cloud seems parted an instant only that we may measure all its horror as it hangs low, black, and imminent, in contrast with the transient brightness; the waterdrops that visit the parched lips in the desert bear with them only the keen imagination of thirst.”

LifeMayMomentsSeemsLife IsSufferingBlackImaginationOur LivesBearsHorrorLowsLipsCloudsTrialsDesertInstantSubstitutesContrastDreadThirstCurtainsBrightnessTransientHeavinessRespite
Book:Silas Marner and Scenes of Clerical Life
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“Looking at your life as a debt may seem the dreariest view of things at a distance; but it cannot really be so. What makes life dreary is the want of motive; but once beginning to act with the penitential, loving purpose you have in your mind, there will be unexpected satisfactions--there will be newly-opening needs--continually coming to carry you on from day to day. You will find your life growing like a plant.”

WantLifeNeedsMindMaySeemsPurposeViewsGrowingDistancePlantSatisfactionDebtOpeningMotiveUnexpectedDay To DayDreary
Book:The Works of George Eliot in Twelve Volumes: Scenes of clerical life - Life of George Eliot
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“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
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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 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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“Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and a great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without the aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation in English society? Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety?”

MenMayGivenMoralCareersAtheismBirthHigherHolySpeechStandardsProfoundAverageIntellectPositive AtheismAidsAcceptedReputationMediocrityInstructionModeratesZealPietyEgoismAffluenceRhetoricalPlatitudesEnglish Society
Book:The Essays of George Eliot
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“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
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“When the animals entered the Ark in pairs, one may imagine that allied species made much private remark on each other, and were tempted to think that so many forms feeding on the same store of fodder were eminently superfluous, as tending to diminish the rations.”

ThinkingMayMadeFormAnimalImagineSpeciesStoresPairsImagine ThatFeedingDiminishTemptedRemarksSuperfluousArkFodderRations
Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“O may I join the choir invisible of those immortal dead who live again in minds made better by their presence; live in pulses stirred to generosity, in deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable aims that end with self, in thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, and with their mild persistence urge men's search to vaster issues.”

MenMindMayMadeEndsSelfNightStarsIssuesAimDeedsInvisibleMiserableGenerosityPersistenceUrgesImmortalDaringSublimeScornPulseChoirPierceRectitude
Author:George Eliot
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“A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

HeartMayHandsTogetherFriendshipKindnessKnowingAcceptanceBreathsBlowGentleGrainTrue FriendTrue FriendshipBest FriendMy FriendshipPositive MarriageFriend LoveMaking FriendsTrue Friend IsEasy FriendshipTrue Friendship And LifeBeing A True Friend
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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“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)
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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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“Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.”

HumansMayLongJoyTurnsSportsDarkKnowledgePowerIgnoranceConscienceBlindGiantsBuriedFabricPillarsKnowledge Is PowerScruplesBabylonUnbound
Book:Daniel Deronda
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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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“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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“May I reach That purest heaven - be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony; Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty. Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in the diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world.”

WorldLoveMaySoulHeavenLove IsSweetPureMusic IsInvisibleIntenseCrueltyCupsGenerosityGenerousAgonyBegetsChoirGladnessPure LoveArdorDiffusion
Book:Armgart: The Spanish Gypsy, and Other Poems
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