George Eliot

But most of us are apt to settle within ourselves that the man who blocks our way is odious, and not to mind causing him a little of the disgust which his personality excites in ourselves.

Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

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.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage, they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew-drops which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

He who has never hoped can never despair.

We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

The physical world, including our bodies, is a response of the observer. We create our bodies as we create the experience of our world.

He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

We are just statistics, born to consume resources.