George Eliot quotes - page 5

Tis God gives skill, But not without mens hands He could not make Antonio Stradivaris violins Without Antonio. (George Eliot)
It's but little good you'll do awatering the last year's crop. View quote
George Eliot
. . . you know nothing about Hope, that immortal, delicious maiden forever courted forever propitious, whom fools have called deceitful, as if it were Hope that carried the cup of disappointment, whereas it is her deadly enemy, Certainty, whom she only es. View quote
George Eliot
. . . the rich ate and drank freely, accepting gout and apoplexy as things that ran mysteriously in respectable families . . . View quote
George Eliot
. . . there was no gleam, no shadow, for the heavens, too, were one still, pale cloud no sound or motion in anything but the dark river that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow. View quote
George Eliot
That quiet mutual gaze of a trusting husband and wife is like the first moment of rest or refuge from a great weariness or a great danger--not to be interfered with by speech or action which would distract the sensations from the fresh enjoyment of repose. View quote
George Eliot
When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. View quote
George Eliot
Love has a way of cheating itself consciously, like a child who plays at solitary hide-and-seek it is pleased with assurances that it all the while disbelieves. View quote
George Eliot
These bitter sorrows of childhood when sorrow is all new and strange, when hope has not yet got wings to fly beyond the days and weeks, and the space from summer to summer seems measureless. View quote
George Eliot
There is no private life which is not determined by a wider public life. View quote
George Eliot
It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal. (George Eliot)
What makes life dreary is the want of a motive. View quote
George Eliot
Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends? View quote
George Eliot
These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions and it is these people--amongst whom your life is passed--that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire--for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience. View quote
George Eliot
War, like other dramatic spectacles, might possibly cease for want of a "public." View quote
George Eliot
Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves. View quote
George Eliot
The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce the sum of ignorance, degradation and misery on the face of this beautiful earth. View quote
George Eliot
Inclination snatches arguments To make indulgence seem judicious choice. View quote
George Eliot
I like breakfast-time better than any other moment in the day," said Mr. Irwine. "No dust has settled on one's mind then, and it presents a clear mirror to the rays of things. View quote
George Eliot
Perhaps the wind Wails so in winter for the summers dead, And all sad sounds are nature's funeral cries For what has been and is not. View quote
George Eliot
Our life is determined for us--and it makes the mind very free when we give up wishing, and only think of bearing what is laid upon us, and doing what is given us to do. (George Eliot)
Who can prove Wit to be witty when with deeper ground Dulness intuitive declares wit dull? View quote
George Eliot
Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face. View quote
George Eliot
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined - to strengthen each other - to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories. View quote
George Eliot
The darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness. View quote
George Eliot