George Eliot quotes - page 8

I like trying to get pregnant. I'm not so sure about childbirth. (George Eliot)
She and Stephen were in that stage of courtship which makes the most exquisite moment of youth, the freshest blossom-time of passion,--when each is sure of the other's love, but no formal declaration has been made, and all is mutual divination, exalting the most trivial word, the lightest gesture, into thrills delicate and delicious as wafted jasmine scent. View quote
George Eliot
O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge men's search To vaster issues. View quote
George Eliot
Excessive literary production is a social offense. View quote
George Eliot
Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before--consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. View quote
George Eliot
A woman's hopes are woven of sunbeams a shadow annihilates them. View quote
George Eliot
When Squire Cass's standing dishes diminished in plenty and freshness, his guests had nothing to do but to walk a little higher up the village to Mr. Osgood's, at the Orchards, and they found hams and chines uncut, pork-pies with the scent of the fire in them, spun butter in all its freshness--everything, in fact, that appetites at leisure could desire, in perhaps greater perfection, though not in greater abundance, than at Squire Cass's. View quote
George Eliot
He had a sense that the old man meant to be good-natured and neighbourly but the kindness fell on him as sunshine falls on the wretched--he had no heart to taste it, and felt that it was very far off him. View quote
George Eliot
Instead of trying to still his fears, he encouraged them, with that superstitious impression which clings to us all, that if we expect evil very strongly it is the less likely to come . . . View quote
George Eliot
Such young unfurrowed souls roll to meet each other like two velvet peaches that touch softly and are at rest they mingle as easily as two brooklets that ask for nothing but to entwine themselves and ripple with ever-interlacing curves in the leafiest hiding-places. View quote
George Eliot
There are so many of us, and our lots are so different, what wonder that Nature's mood is often in harsh contrast with the great crisis of our lives We are children of a large family, and must learn, as such children do, not to expect that our hurts will be made much of--to be content with little nurture and caressing, and help each other the more. (George Eliot)
Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit. View quote
George Eliot
. . . people who love downy peaches are apt not to think of the stone, and sometimes jar their teeth terribly against it. View quote
George Eliot
. . . her heart lived in no cherished secrets of its own, but in feelings which it longed to share with all the world. View quote
George Eliot
Certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we're so fond of it. View quote
George Eliot
Perfect love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the relation of the least-instructed human beings... View quote
George Eliot
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them. View quote
George Eliot
Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away. View quote
George Eliot
A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away. View quote
George Eliot
Don't judge a book by its cover. View quote
George Eliot
I think I dislike what I don't like more than I like what I like. (George Eliot)
It's a father's duty to give his sons a fine chance. View quote
George Eliot
It seems to me now, if I was to find Father at home to-night, I should behave different; but there's no knowing - perhaps nothing 'ud be a lesson to us if it didn't come too late. View quote
George Eliot
The beings closest to us, whether in love or hate, are often virtually our interpreters of the world, and some feather-headed gentleman or lady whom in passing we regret to take as legal tender for a human being may be acting as a melancholy theory of life in the minds of those who live with them - like a piece of yellow and wavy glass that distorts form and makes colour an affliction. Their trivial sentences, their petty standards, their low suspicions, their loveless ennui, may be making somebody else's life no better than a promenade through a pantheon of ugly idols. View quote
George Eliot
You told me the truth when you said to me once, "There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for". View quote
George Eliot