George Eliot Literature Quotations

Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.

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

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour's buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.

In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

In every parting there is an image of death.

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

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

bad literature of the sort called amusing is spiritual gin.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offense. ... Everyone who contributes to the 'too much' of literature is doing grave social injury.

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

People who can't be witty exert themselves to be devout and affectionate.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.