George Eliot Quotes - Page 39

• The worst of all hobbies are those that people think they can get money at. They shoot their money down like corn out of a sack then.

  George Eliot

  Thinking, People, Hobbies

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.1227, Wordsworth Editions

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• The purifying influence of public confession springs from the fact, that by it the hope in lies is forever swept away, and the soul recovers the noble attitude of simplicity.

  George Eliot

  Honesty, Attitude, Spring

  George Eliot (1863). “Romola”, p.112

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• When you get me a good man made out of arguments, I will get you a good dinner with reading you the cookery book.

  George Eliot

  Book, Reading, Men

  George Eliot (2010). “Middlemarch”, p.305, Lulu.com

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• Brothers are so unpleasant.

  George Eliot

  Brother

  George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life. By George Eliot ....”, p.108

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• When the animals entered the Ark in pairs, one may imagine that allied species made much private remark on each other, and were tempted to think that so many forms feeding on the same store of fodder were eminently superfluous, as tending to diminish the rations.

  George Eliot

  Thinking, Animal, May

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.222, Penguin

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• But how little we know what would make paradise for our neighbours! We judge from our own desires, and our neighbours themselves are not always open enough even to throw out a hint of theirs.

  George Eliot

  Judging, Desire, Paradise

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.720, Wordsworth Editions

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• We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.

  George Eliot

  Names, People, Littles

  George Eliot (2004). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.429, Broadview Press

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• Can anything be more disgusting than to hear people called 'educated' making small jokes about eating ham, and showing themselves empty of any real knowledge as to the relation of their own social and religious life to the history of the people they think themselves witty in insulting? [...] The best thing that can be said of it is, that it is a sign of the intellectual narrowness—in plain English, the stupidity which is still the average mark of our culture.

  George Eliot

  Witty, Religious, Real

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.6957, Delphi Classics

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• A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.

  George Eliot

  Opinion, Cynicism, Fellows

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.76, Penguin

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• Eros has degenerated; he began by introducing order and harmony, and now he brings back chaos.

  George Eliot

  Order, Chaos, Harmony

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.233, Penguin

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• Society never made the preposterous demand that a man should think as much about his own qualifications for making a charming girl happy as he thinks of hers for making himself happy.

  George Eliot

  Girl, Men, Thinking

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.189, Penguin

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• We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably and perhaps been staring at us in private while we have been making up our world entirely without it.

  George Eliot

  Our World, Discovery, Facts

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.223, Penguin

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• If a man goes a little too far along a new road, it is usually himself that he harms more than any one else.

  George Eliot

  Men, Littles, New Roads

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch”, p.693, Booklassic

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• Marriage is so unlike everything else. There is something even awful in the nearness it brings. Even if we loved someone else better than - than those we were married to, it would be no use. I mean, marriage drinks up all our power of giving or getting any blessedness in that sort of love. I know it may be very dear, but it murders our marriage, and then the marriage stays with us like a murder, and everything else is gone.

  George Eliot

  Mean, Giving, Would Be

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• Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life──the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within──can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.

  George Eliot

  Grief, Struggle, Fall

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• People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.

  George Eliot

  Thinking, People, Neighbor

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2693, Delphi Classics

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• The memory has as many moods as the temper, and shifts its scenery like a diorama.

  George Eliot

  Memories, Mood, Scenery

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.722, Wordsworth Editions

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• There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man or woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer --committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear.

  George Eliot

  Peace, Morning, Pain

  "Felix Holt, the Radical". Book by George Eliot. Introductory chapter, 1866.

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• If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified: by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.

  George Eliot

  Views, Perfect, Looks

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.1166, Wordsworth Editions

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• So deeply inherent is it in this life of ours that men have to suffer for each other's sins, so inevitably diffusive is human suffering, that even justice makes its victims, and we can conceive no retribution that does not spread beyond its mark in pulsations of unmerited pain.

  George Eliot

  Pain, Men, Justice

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.6060, Delphi Classics

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• If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new. We are told that the oldest inhabitants in Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock, and reflect that there are plenty more to come.

  George Eliot

  Thinking, Earthquakes, Hopeful

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2528, Delphi Classics

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• How can one ever do anything nobly Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts?

  George Eliot

  Christian, Pride, People

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.34, Penguin

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• It’s rather a strong check to one’s self-complacency to find how much of one’s right doing depends on not being in want of money.

  George Eliot

  Strong, Self, Temptation

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2614, Delphi Classics

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• The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

  George Eliot

  Change, Nature, Believe

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.498, Penguin

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• Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!

  George Eliot

  Best Friend, Friendship, Spring

  George Eliot (1839). “Theophrastus Such, Jubal and other poems and The Spanish gypsy”, p.438

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