Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. - George Eliot
Wear a smile and have friends, wear a scowl and have wrinkles. - 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
If Art does not enlarge men’s sympathies, it does nothing morally. - George Eliot
Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. - George Eliot
Adventure is not outside man; it is within. - 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
She was no longer wresting with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts. - George Eliot
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. - George Eliot
It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much. - George Eliot
Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. - 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
Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through. - George Eliot
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined to strengthen each other, to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories - George Eliot
It's never too late to be what you might have been. - George Eliot
The devil tempts us not; 'tis we who tempt him, beckoning his skill with opportunity. - George Eliot
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. - George Eliot
The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice. - George Eliot
Can any man or woman choose duties? No more that they can choose their birthplace, or their father or mother. - George Eliot
Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it. - George Eliot
It is never too late to become what we might have been. - George Eliot
What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other? - George Eliot
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them. - George Eliot
My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. - George Eliot
The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world. - George Eliot
Be courteous, be obliging, but don't give yourself over to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade. - George Eliot
Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking. - George Eliot
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. - George Eliot
Our deeds are like children that are born to us;they live and act apart from our own will. - George Eliot
The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life. - George Eliot
There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music. - George Eliot
There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope. - George Eliot
What should I do—how should I act now, this very day . . . What she would resolve to do that day did not yet seem quite clear, but something that she could achieve stirred her as with an approaching murmur which would soon gather distinctness. - George Eliot
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? - George Eliot
We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us. - George Eliot
If a man means to be hard, let him keep in his saddle and speak from that height, above the level of pleading eyes, and with the command of a distant horizon. - George Eliot
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. - George Eliot
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. - George Eliot
Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities. - George Eliot
The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men. - George Eliot
But pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty. - George Eliot
Some people did what their neighbors did so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them. - George Eliot
What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope. - George Eliot
One of the tortures of jealousy is that it can never turn its eyes away from the thing that pains it. - George Eliot
No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence. - George Eliot
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music. - George Eliot
Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love. - George Eliot
The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth. - George Eliot
When one is grateful for something too good for common thanks, writing is less unsatisfactory than speech-one does not, at least, hear how inadequate the words are. - George Eliot
Every man who is not a monster, mathematician or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other. - George Eliot
Our deeds travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. - George Eliot
It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses. - George Eliot
Yes, the house must be inhabited, and we will see by whom; for imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity. - George Eliot
Excessive literary production is a social offense. - George Eliot
No evil dooms us hopelessly, except the evil we love, and desire to continue in and make no effort to escape from. - George Eliot
If art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally. - George Eliot
It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal. - George Eliot
The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots. - George Eliot
We ust find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been. - George Eliot
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories. - George Eliot
It is never too late to be what you might have been. - George Eliot
If we could hear the squirrel's heartbeat, the sound of the grass growing, we should die of that roar. - George Eliot
Childhood has no forebodings, but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow. - George Eliot
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life? - George Eliot
On the other hand, she was disproportionately indulgent towards the failings of men, and was often heard to say that these were natural. - George Eliot
When we are young we think our troubles a mighty business – that the world is spread out expressly as a stage for the particular drama of our lives and that we have a right to rant and foam at the mouth if we are crossed. I have done enough of that in my time. - George Eliot
But I hasten to finish my story. Brevity is justified at once to those who readily understand, and to those who will never understand. - George Eliot
But if she can marry blood, beauty, and bravery—the sooner the better. - George Eliot
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact. - George Eliot
It's never too late to be who you might have been. - George Eliot
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. - George Eliot
Fate has carried me'Mid the thick arrows: I will keep my stand--Not shrink and let the shaft pass by my breastTo pierce another. - George Eliot
There's folks 'ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots. - George Eliot
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. - George Eliot
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. - George Eliot
It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves. - George Eliot
Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness. - George Eliot
Duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly -- something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us, and who breaks his leg within our gates. - George Eliot