1,496 Quotes by George Eliot

In the first moments when we come away from the presence of death, every other relation to the living is merged, to our feeling, in the great relation of a common nature and a common destiny.

So deeply inherent is it in this life of ours that men have to suffer for each other's sins, so inevitably diffusive is human suffering, that even justice makes its victims, and we can conceive no retribution that does not spread beyond its mark in pulsations of unmerited pain.

Our growing thought Makes growing revelation.

The thing we look forward to often comes to pass, but never precisely in the way we have imagined to ourselves.

What if my words Were meant for deeds.

You youngsters nowadays think you're to begin with living well and working easy; you've no notion of running afoot before you get on horseback.

He had the superficial kindness of a good-humored, self-satisfied nature, that fears no rivalry, and has encountered no contrarieties.

Oh may I join the choir invisible / Of those immortal dead who live again / In minds made better by their presence.

If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified: by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.