quotes by George Eliot

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

"I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear."
— George Eliot

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
— 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

"Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress."
— George Eliot (Middlemarch (Signet Classics))

"...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

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words but to pour them all out, just as it is, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."
— George Eliot

"It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted. "
— George Eliot (Middlemarch (Penguin Classics))

"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

"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

"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

"Hurt, he'll never be hurt--he's made to hurt other people."
— George Eliot (Silas Marner)

""Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you."
"I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl's life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her...I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.""
— George Eliot (Middlemarch)

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

"And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it."
— George Eliot (Middlemarch (Penguin Classics))

""Our deeds still travel with us from afar/And what we have been makes us what we are.""
— George Eliot (Middlemarch (Signet Classics))

""Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.""
— George Eliot (Adam Bede (Modern Library Classics))

"Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. 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 (Middlemarch (Signet Classics))

"I would rather not be engaged. When people are engaged, they begin to think of being married soon, and I should like everything to go on for a long while just as it is."
— George Eliot (The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics))

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