Middlemarch Quotes

• That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil -- widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.

  George Eliot

  Struggle, Perfectly Good, Light

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.261, Penguin

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• And Dorothea..she had no dreams of being praised above other women. Feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better, her full nature spent itself in deeds which left no great name on the earth, but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable. For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and on all those Dorotheas who life faithfully their hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Middlemarch

  George Eliot

  Dream, Names, Feelings

  10 Copy quote

• But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

  George Eliot

  Life, Numbers, Obscurity

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch - A Study of Provincial Life -”, p.367, Read Books Ltd

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else's are transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lamp they alone are rosy.

  George Eliot

  Lying, Thinking, Yellow

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.212, Penguin

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Eliot

  Women, Stupid, Ems

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.462, Delphi Classics

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another

  George Eliot

  Soul, Suits, Complexion

  George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.7

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

  George Eliot

  Self, Objectivity, Vision

  George Eliot (2016). “Middlemarch”, p.386, Xist Publishing

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.

  George Eliot

  Hurt, Pride, Helping

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.50, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oh may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence.

  George Eliot

  Mind, May, Invisible

  "Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible" l. 1 (1867)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Eliot

  Views, Perspective, Perception

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.367, Wordsworth Editions

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

  George Eliot

  Lonely, Loneliness, Being Alone

  George Eliot (2016). “George Eliot Collection: Middlemarch, Adam Bede, Silas Marner, The Lifted Veil, and The Mill on the Floss”, p.935, Xist Publishing

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness - calling their denial knowledge.

  George Eliot

  Men, Joy, Forever

  George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.148

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.

  George Eliot

  Love You, Pride, Thinking

  George Eliot “Middlemarch, Volume III”, Lulu.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The nature o' things doesn't change, though it seems as if one's own life was nothing but change.

  George Eliot

  Seems, Ifs

  George Eliot (1890). “Adam Bede: Scenes of Clerical Life”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, "Oh, nothing!" Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others.

  George Eliot

  Hurt, Disappointment, Pride

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.50, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Eliot

  Hope, Pain, Live Life

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2488, Delphi Classics

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.

  George Eliot

  People, Might, Neighbor

  1871-2 Middlemarch, bk.1, ch.1.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Eliot

  Men, Courses, Knows

  George Eliot (2016). “Middlemarch”, Xist Publishing

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion.

  George Eliot

  Opportunity, Views, Cheerful

  George Eliot (2016). “Middlemarch”, p.683, Xist Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.

  George Eliot

  People, Bravery, Might

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2694, Delphi Classics

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a truism of epistolary psychology that, for example, a Christmas thank-you note written on December 26 can say any old thing, but if you wait until February, you are convinced that nothing less than Middlemarch will do.

  Anne Fadiman

  Old Things, Waiting, Psychology

  7 Copy quote

• A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

  George Eliot

  Marriage, Order, May

  'Middlemarch' (1871-2) bk. 1, ch. 9

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinnertime.

  George Eliot

  Disappointment, Breakfast, Men And Women

  George Eliot (1873). “Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings in Prose and Verse: Selected from the Works of George Eliot”, p.291

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Character is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.

  George Eliot

  Character, Cutting, Body

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.480, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

  George Eliot

  Faith, Errors, Feelings

  George Eliot (2004). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.640, Broadview Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source