1,496 Quotes by George Eliot

I can't abide to see men throw away their tools i' that way, the minute the clock begins to strike, as if they took no pleasure i' their work, and was afraid o' doing a stroke too much.... I hate to see a man's arms drop down as if he was shot, before the clock's fairly struck, just as if he'd never a bit o' pride and delight in's work. The very grindstone 'ull go on turning a bit after you loose it.

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

Husbands are an inferior class of men, who require keeping in order,

Vague memories hang about the mind like cobwebs.

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

A foreman, if he's got a conscience, and delights in his work, will do his business as well as if he was a partner. I wouldn't give a penny for a man as 'ud drive a nail in slack because he didn't get extra pay for it.

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

Memory, when duly impregnated with ascertained facts, is sometimes surprisingly fertile.

The words of genius have a wider meaning than the thought that prompted them.