George Eliot

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.

Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths?

Errors look so very ugly in persons of small means – one feels they are taking quite a liberty in going astray; whereas people of fortune may naturally indulge in a few delinquencies.

For character too is a process and an unfolding… among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.

Englishmen hate Liberty and Equality too much to understand them. But every Englishman loves a pedigree.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage.

The listlessness of it all, the profit off depression, the extinction of an entire species, the chlorinated connections- poisoned just to appear clean.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

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.

Preaching is the expression of moral sentiments applied to the duties of life.

Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.

Haste makes Work which Caution prevents.

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.