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Certainly the determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and novel impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

George Eliot

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George Eliot
Age: 61 †
Born: 1819
Born: November 22
Died: 1880
Died: December 22
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
Writer
Mary Anne Evans
Mary Ann Evans
Marian Evans
Mary Anne Evans Cross
Mary Anne Cross
Beautiful
Novel
Impulse
Amidst
Young
Struggle
Acts
Ideally
States
Results
Errors
Determining
Take
State
Illusion
Mixed
Great
Faith
Result
Struggling
Life
Often
Aspect
Social
Certainly
Imperfect
Feelings
Conditions
Error

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Don't you meddle with me, and I won't meddle with you.
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It is the moment when our resolution seems about to become irrevocable--when the fatal iron gates are about to close upon us--that tests our strength. Then, after hours of clear reasoning and firm conviction, we snatch at any sophistry that will nullify our long struggles, and bring us the defeat that we love better than victory.
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The tread Of coming footsteps cheats the midnight watcher Who holds her heart and waits to hear them pause, And hears them never pause, but pass and die.
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The early months of marriage often are times of critical tumult,--whether that of a shrimp pool or of deeper water,--which afterwards subside into cheerful peace.
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For pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.
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A man never lies with more delicious languor under the influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he shall subdue it to-morrow.
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Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.
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But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric 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.
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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.
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Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice. Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better.
George Eliot
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A foreman, if he's got a conscience, and delights in his work, will do his business as well as if he was a partner. I wouldn't give a penny for a man as 'ud drive a nail in slack because he didn't get extra pay for it.
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My books don't seem to belong to me after I have once written them and I find myself delivering opinions about them as if I had nothing to do with them.
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Thought Has joys apart, even in blackest woe, And seizing some fine thread of verity Knows momentary godhead.
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Eros has degenerated he began by introducing order and harmony, and now he brings back chaos.
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It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.
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It is very difficult to be learned it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.
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Susceptible persons are more affected by a change of tone that by unexpected words.
George Eliot
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There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder.
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To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.
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Some folks' tongues are like the clocks as run on strikin', not to tell you the time o' the day, but because there's summat wrong i' their own inside.
George Eliot