Quotes By George Eliot

Date of Birth: November 22, 1819    Date of Death: December 22, 1880

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.  ~ George Eliot


Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.  ~ George Eliot


Time, like money, is measured by our needs.  ~ George Eliot


It is never too late to be what you might have been.  ~ George Eliot


There are many victories worse than a defeat.  ~ George Eliot


What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.  ~ George Eliot


No man can be wise on an empty stomach.  ~ George Eliot


Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.  ~ George Eliot


We are all of us imaginative in some form or other, for images are the brood of desire.  ~ George Eliot


It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.  ~ George Eliot


It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.  ~ George Eliot


One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.  ~ George Eliot


The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.  ~ George Eliot


Keep true. Never be ashamed of doing right. Decide what you think is right and stick to it.  ~ George Eliot


The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.  ~ George Eliot


The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.  ~ George Eliot


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


The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies.... Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot.  ~ George Eliot


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


It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.  ~ George Eliot


Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.  ~ George Eliot


Truth has rough flavors if we bite it through.  ~ George Eliot


The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.  ~ George Eliot


I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.  ~ George Eliot


I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved.  ~ George Eliot


There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.  ~ George Eliot


If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.  ~ George Eliot


Those who trust us educate us.  ~ George Eliot


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


Plainness has its peculiar temptations quite as much as beauty.  ~ George Eliot


Adventure is not outside man; it is within.  ~ George Eliot


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


Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence.  ~ George Eliot


We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.  ~ George Eliot


Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?  ~ 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.  ~ 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.  ~ 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.  ~ George Eliot


What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?  ~ George Eliot


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


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


Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.  ~ George Eliot


Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.  ~ George Eliot


There is no despair so absolute as that which comes from the first moments of our first great sorrow when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and healed, to have despaired and recovered hope.  ~ George Eliot


It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.  ~ George Eliot


What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?  ~ George Eliot