George Eliot

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.

It’s them as take advantage that get advantage I this world.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

Philebus was saying that enjoyment and pleasure and delight, and the class of feelings akin to them, are a good to every living being, whereas I contend, that not these, but wisdom and intelligence and memory, and their kindred, right opinion and true reasoning, are better and more desirable than pleasure

Virtue is too often merely local.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.

The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.

If you lose money you lose much, If you lose friends you lose more, If you lose faith you lose all.