Quotes from George Eliot

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

Speech may be barren; but it is ridiculous to suppose that silence is always brooding on a nestful of eggs.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

It's but little good you'll go a-water-ing the last year's crop.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

It's no use filling your pocket with money if you have got a hole in the corner.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

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

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.

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

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.

History repeats itself.

Duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly -- something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us, and who breaks his leg within our gates.

Folks as have no mind to be o' use have allays the luck to be out o' the road when there's anything to be done.

Well, well, my boy, if good luck knocks at your door, don't you put your head out at window and tell it to be gone about its business, that's all.

Education was almost entirely a matter of luck — usually of ill-luck — in those distant days.

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.

No man can be wise on an empty stomach.

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

Can any man or woman choose duties? No more than they can choose their birthplace or their father and mother.