Inspiring Quotes by George Eliot
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Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.

When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity.

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

Breed is stronger than pasture.

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

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

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

I like trying to get pregnant. I'm not so sure about childbirth.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

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

We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.

The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

Death is the king of this world: 'Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more bushes.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

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

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

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

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

Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.