Middlemarch

by George Eliot

Who wants to relax out of place, weary. —PASCAL.

How will you know the pitch of that great bell Too large for you to stir? Let but a flute Play ’neath the fine-mixed metal: listen close Till the right note flows forth, a silvery rill: Then shall the huge bell tremble—then the mass With myriad waves concurrent shall respond In low soft unison.

They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk. —SHAKESPEARE: TEMPEST.

Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation. —2 HENRY VI.

1st Gent. Such men as this are feathers, chips, and straws, Carry no weight, no force. 2d Gent. But levity Is causal too, and makes the sum of weight. For power finds its place in lack of power; Advance is cession, and the driven ship May run aground because the helmsman’s thought Lacked force to balance opposites.

No, I don’t understand a more charming pleasure, Than seeing heirs of a distressed troop Support forbidden, and the mine extended, Reading a long will pale, amazed Bidding them a good evening thumbing your nose. To see their deep sadness naturally I would come back, I think, from the other world. —REGNARD: THE UNIVERSAL LEGATEE.

’T is strange to see the humors of these men, These great aspiring spirits, that should be wise: . . . . . . For being the nature of great spirits to love To be where they may be most eminent; They, rating of themselves so farre above Us in conceit, with whom they do frequent, Imagine how we wonder and esteeme All that they do or say; which makes them strive To make our admiration more extreme, Which they suppose they cannot, ’less they give Notice of their extreme and highest thoughts. —DANIEL: TRAGEDY OF PHILOTAS.

Thrice happy she that is so well assured Unto herself, and settled so in heart, That neither will for better be allured Ne fears to worse with any chance to start, But like a steddy ship doth strongly part The raging waves, and keeps her course aright; Ne aught for tempest doth from it depart, Ne aught for fairer weather’s false delight. Such self-assurance need not fear the spight Of grudging foes; ne favour seek of friends; But in the stay of her own stedfast might Neither to one herself nor other bends. Most happy she that most assured doth rest, But he most happy who such one loves best. —SPENSER.

There’s a lot of men’s judgment on human actions: sooner or later it must be effective. —GUIZOT.

If, as I have, you also doe, Vertue attired in woman see, And dare love that, and say so too, And forget the He and She; And if this love, though placed so, From prophane men you hide, Which will no faith on this bestow, Or, if they doe, deride: Then you have done a braver thing Than all the Worthies did, And a braver thence will spring, Which is, to keep that hid. —DR. DONNE.

Wise in his daily work was he: To fruits of diligence, And not to faiths or polity, He plied his utmost sense. These perfect in their little parts, Whose work is all their prize— Without them how could laws, or arts, Or towered cities rise?

By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day. —TWELFTH NIGHT.

How much, methinks, I could despise this man Were I not bound in charity against it! —SHAKESPEARE: HENRY VIII.

This figure hath high price: ’t was wrought with love Ages ago in finest ivory; Nought modish in it, pure and noble lines Of generous womanhood that fits all time That too is costly ware; majolica Of deft design, to please a lordly eye: The smile, you see, is perfect—wonderful As mere Faience! a table ornament To suit the richest mounting.

I would not creep along the coast but steer Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.

what loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

It is the humor of many heads to extol the days of their forefathers, and declaim against the wickedness of times present. Which notwithstanding they cannot handsomely do, without the borrowed help and satire of times past; condemning the vices of their own times, by the expressions of vices in times which they commend, which cannot but argue the community of vice in both. Horace, therefore, Juvenal, and Persius, were no prophets, although their lines did seem to indigitate and point at our times. —SIR THOMAS BROWNE: PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.

Pues no podemos haber aquello que queremos, queramos aquello que podremos. Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get. —SPANISH PROVERB.

Was never true love loved in vain, For truest love is highest gain. No art can make it: it must spring Where elements are fostering. So in heaven’s spot and hour Springs the little native flower, Downward root and upward eye, Shapen by the earth and sky.

Surely the golden hours are turning gray And dance no more, and vainly strive to run: I see their white locks streaming in the wind— Each face is haggard as it looks at me, Slow turning in the constant clasping round Storm-driven.

A task too strong for wizard spells This squire had brought about; ’T is easy dropping stones in wells, But who shall get them out?

“This Loller here wol precilen us somewhat.” “Nay by my father’s soule! that schal he nat,” Sayde the Schipman, “here schal he not preche, We schal no gospel glosen here ne teche. We leven all in the gret God,” quod he. He wolden sowen some diffcultee. —CANTERBURY TALES.

Party is Nature too, and you shall see By force of Logic how they both agree: The Many in the One, the One in Many; All is not Some, nor Some the same as Any: Genus holds species, both are great or small; One genus highest, one not high at all; Each species has its differentia too, This is not That, and He was never You, Though this and that are AYES, and you and he Are like as one to one, or three to three.

His heart The lowliest duties on itself did lay. —WORDSWORTH.

It is but a shallow haste which concludeth insincerity from what outsiders call inconsistency—putting a dead mechanism of “ifs” and “therefores” for the living myriad of hidden suckers whereby the belief and the conduct are wrought into mutual sustainment.

My lady carries love within her eyes; All that she looks on is made pleasanter; Upon her path men turn to gaze at her; He whom she greeteth feels his heart to rise, And droops his troubled visage, full of sighs, And of his evil heart is then aware: Hate loves, and pride becomes a worshipper. O women, help to praise her in somewise. Humbleness, and the hope that hopeth well, By speech of hers into the mind are brought, And who beholds is blessèd oftenwhiles. The look she hath when she a little smiles Cannot be said, nor holden in the thought; ’Tis such a new and gracious miracle. —DANTE: THE NEW LIFE.

Hath she her faults? I would you had them too. They are the fruity must of soundest wine; Or say, they are regenerating fire Such as hath turned the dense black element Into a crystal pathway for the sun.

How happy is he born and taught That serveth not another’s will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his only skill! . . . . . . This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall; Lord of himself though not of lands; And having nothing yet hath all. —SIR HENRY WOTTON.

They numbered scarce eight summers when a name Rose on their souls and stirred such motions there As thrill the buds and shape their hidden frame At penetration of the quickening air: His name who told of loyal Evan Dhu, Of quaint Bradwardine, and Vich Ian Vor, Making the little world their childhood knew Large with a land of mountain lake and scaur, And larger yet with wonder, love, belief Toward Walter Scott who living far away Sent them this wealth of joy and noble grief. The book and they must part, but day by day, In lines that thwart like portly spiders ran They wrote the tale, from Tully Veolan.

For there can live no hatred in thine eye, Therefore in that I cannot know thy change: In many’s looks the false heart’s history Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange: But Heaven in thy creation did decree That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell: Whate’er thy thoughts or thy heart’s workings be Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell. —SHAKESPEARE: SONNETS.

They said of old the Soul had human shape, But smaller, subtler than the fleshly self, So wandered forth for airing when it pleased. And see! beside her cherub-face there floats A pale-lipped form aerial whispering Its promptings in that little shell her ear.

Good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. —JUSTICE SHALLOW.

“Inconsistencies,” answered Imlac, “cannot both be right, but imputed to man they may both be true.” —RASSELAS.

He was a squyer of lowe degre, That loved the king’s daughter of Hungrie. —OLD ROMANCE.

These little things are great to little man. —GOLDSMITH.

1st Gent. Where lies the power, there let the blame lie too. 2d Gent. Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright The coming pest with border fortresses, Or catch your carp with subtle argument. All force is twain in one: cause is not cause Unless effect be there; and action’s self Must needs contain a passive. So command Exists but with obedience.

One of us two must bowen douteless, And, sith a man is more reasonable Than woman is, ye [men] moste be suffrable. —CHAUCER: CANTERBURY TALES.

’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. —MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Now is there civil war within the soul: Resolve is thrust from off the sacred throne By clamorous Needs, and Pride the grand-vizier Makes humble compact, plays the supple part Of envoy and deft-tongued apologist For hungry rebels.

What suit of grace hath Virtue to put on If Vice shall wear as good, and do as well? If Wrong, if Craft, if Indiscretion Act as fair parts with ends as laudable? Which all this mighty volume of events The world, the universal map of deeds, Strongly controls, and proves from all descents, That the directest course still best succeeds. For should not grave and learn’d Experience That looks with the eyes of all the world beside, And with all ages holds intelligence, Go safer than Deceit without a guide! —DANIEL: MUSOPHILUS.

If thou hast heard a word, let it die with thee. —ECCLESIASTICUS.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are.

Clown . . . ’Twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not? Froth. I have so: because it is an open room, and good for winter. Clo. Why, very well then: I hope here be truths. —MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Full souls are double mirrors, making still An endless vista of fair things before, Repeating things behind.

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

Pity the laden one; this wandering woe May visit you and me.

Mercifully grant that we may grow aged together. —BOOK OF TOBIT: MARRIAGE PRAYER.

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy. —PASCAL.

“This young creature has a heart large enough for the Virgin Mary.

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.