George Eliot

All the learnin’ my father paid for was a bit o’ birch at one end and an alphabet at the other.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

Certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we’re so fond of it.

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

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 kind. 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.

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the dear deceit of beauty.

When the eye is not set on one leaf and you face the tree with nothing in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye.

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

None of us should be defined by the worst thing we’ve ever done.

Never do wrong when people are looking.

Fueling your body is a process… The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

Every man believes that he has greater possibilities.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Valor consists in the power of self recovery.