George Eliot

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.

No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.

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?

Those who trust us educate us.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.

Things do not change; we change.

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

To delay justice, is injustice.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

A great man is always willing to be little.