Quotes from George Eliot

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

Better a false belief than no belief at all.

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will have it if they cannot find it.

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 they tie their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.

What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.

Blessed influence of one truly loving soul on another!

You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man's form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.

If I got places, sir, it was because I made myself fit for 'em. If you want to slip into a round hole, you must first make a ball of yourself; that's where it is.

It's rather a strong check to one's self-complacency to find how much of one's right doing depends on not being in want of money.

Oh, may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again.

Men's men: be they gentle or simple, they're much of a muchness.

What makes life dreary is want of motive.

Music sweeps by me as a messenger carrying a message that is not for me.

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold in the heart.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Truth has rough flavors if we bite it through.

The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.

A fool or idiot is one who expects things to happen that never can happen.

The desire to conquer is itself a sort of subjection.