Quotes from George Eliot

He had disliked Will while he helped him, but he had begun to dislike him still more now that Will had declined his help. That

cheap inventions where ignorance finds itself able and at ease:

How happy is he born and taught That serveth not another's will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his only skill! . . . . . . . This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall; Lord of himself though not of lands; And having nothing yet hath all. —SIR

Oh, you dear good father!' cried Mary, putting her hands round her father's neck, while he bent his head placidly, willing to be caressed. 'I wonder if any other girl thinks her father the best man in the world!' 'Nonsense, child; you'll think your husband better.' 'Impossible,' said Mary, relapsing into her usual tone; 'husbands are an inferior class of men, who require keeping in order.

his lips were curled with that incipient smile which is apt to accompany agreeable recollections.

I have always been thinking of the different ways in which Christianity is taught, and whenever I find one way that makes it a wider blessing than any other, I cling to that as the truest — I mean that which takes in the most good of all kinds, and brings in the most people as sharers in it. It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much. But I should like to see Mr. Farebrother and hear him preach.

Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight - that, in fact, you are exploring a closed basin.

that inward repetition of looks, words, and phrases, which makes a large part in the lives of most girls.

Language is a finer medium." "Yes, for those who can't paint," said Naumann.

A thorn in her spirit, a pink-and-white nullifidian, worse than any discouraging presence in the 'Pilgrim's Progress'.

You come as opportunely as cheese on macaroni.

Like one who has lost his way and is weary, she sat and saw as in one glance all the paths of her young hope which she should never find again.

He distrusted her affection; and what loneliness is more lonely than distrust

I at least have so much to do in unraveling certain human lots, and seeing how they were woven and interwoven, that all the light I can command must be concentrated on this particular web, and not dispersed over that tempting range of relevancies called the universe.

Those who are not of this world can do little else to arrest the errors of the obstinately worldly.

Is there no other alternative, Maggie? Is that life, away from those who love you, the only one you will allow yourself to look forward to?

The betrothed bride must see her future home, and dictate any changes that she would like to have made there. A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. On

If I don't like a man's looks, depend upon it I shall never like HIM. I don't want to know people that look ugly and disagreeable, any more than I want to taste dishes that look disagreeable.

Direction! I know very well what you mean by direction. When there's a bigger maggot than usual in your head you call it 'direction

is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilet, and never see the great soul in a man's face.

There's nothing but what's bearable as long as a man can work," he said to himself; "the natur o' things doesn't change, though it seems as if one's own life was nothing but change. The square o' four is sixteen, and you must lengthen your lever in proportion to your weight, is as true when a man's miserable as when he's happy; and the best o' working is, it gives you a grip hold o' things outside your own lot.

there's nothing kills a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.

the mother too often standing behind the daughter like a malignant prophecy—Such as I am, she will shortly be.

One must use such brains as are to be found