Quote

If we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners, or everyday clothes, hung up in a sacred place.

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
Words
Hung
Use
Occasions
Felt
Everyday
Place
Sacred
Great
Meaning
Banners
Like
Clothes
Banner
Particular
Striking
Common
Occasion

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The mind that is too ready at contempt and reprobation is, I may say, as a clenched fist that can give blows, but is shut up from receiving and holding ought that is precious.
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If we need a true conception of the popular character to guide our sympathies rightly, we need it equally to check our theories, and direct us in their application.
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People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.
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When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning there are many ways of escaping from its bonds.
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A woman's rank Lies in the fulness of her womanhood: Therein alone she is royal.
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Examining the world in order to find consolation is very much like looking carefully over the pages of a great book in order to find our own name . ... Whether we find what we want or not, our preoccupation has hindered us from a true knowledge of the contents.
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A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful.
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What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?
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Saints and martyrs had never interested Maggie so much as sages and poets.
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To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion.
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It is a wonderful subduer-this need of love, this hunger of the heart.
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Time, like money, is measured by our needs.
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It is impossible, to me at least, to be poetical in cold weather.
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It's never too late to be who you were meant to be.
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For pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.
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May every soul that touches mine - be it the slightest contact - get there from some good some little grace one kindly thought one aspiration yet unfelt one bit of courage for the darkening sky one gleam of faith to brave the thickening ills of life one glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gathering mists - to make this life worthwhile.
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O the anguish of the thought that we can never atone to our dead for the stinted affection we gave them.
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All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women and children -- in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion but in the secret of deep human sympathy.
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The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.
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Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.
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