1,496 Quotes by George Eliot

A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

....whatever else remained the same, the light had changed, and you cannot find the pearly dawn at noonday. The fact is unalterable, that a fellow-mortal with whose nature you are acquainted solely through the brief entrances and exits of a few imaginative weeks called courtship, may, when seen in the continuity of married companionship, be disclosed as something better or worse than what you have preconceived, but will certainly not appear altogether the same.

There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion coolly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.

But a good wife—a good unworldly woman—may really help a man, and keep him more independent.

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

If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?

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

Love gives insight, Maggie, and insight often gives foreboding. Listen to me, let me supply you with books; do let me see you sometimes, be your brother and teacher, as you said at Lorton. It is less wrong that you should see me than that you should be committing this long suicide.

Modesty, not temper.