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The soul of man, when it gets fairly rotten, will bear you all sorts of poisonous toad-stools, and no eye can see whence came the seed thereof.

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
Bear
Thereof
Bears
Whence
Gets
Poisonous
Came
Rotten
Eye
Seed
Soul
Sorts
Toad
Men
Fairly
Stools
Seeds
Toads

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There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.
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In the love of a brave and faithful man there is always a strain of maternal tenderness he gives out again those beams of protecting fondness which were shed on him as he lay on his mother's knee.
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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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There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.
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To the old, sorrow is sorrow to the young, it is despair.
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There is no hour that has not its births of gladness and despair, no morning brightness that does not bring new sickness to desolation as well as new forces to genius and love. There are so many of us, and our lots are so different, what wonder that Nature's mood is often in harsh contrast with the great crisis of our lives?
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To the receptive soul the river of life pauseth not, nor is diminished.
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Of new acquaintances one can never be sure because one likes them one day that it will be so the next. Of old friends one is sure that it will be the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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I love words they are the quoits, the bows, the staves that furnish the gymnasium of the mind.
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Surely, surely the only one true knowledge of our fellow man is that which enables us to feel with him--which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstance and opinion.
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Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.
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Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one's self to do without it.
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I'll tell you what's the greatest power under heaven, and that is public opinion-the ruling belief in society about what is right and what is wrong, what is honourable and what is shameful. That's the steam that is to work the engines.
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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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There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.
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We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, Oh, nothing! Pride helps and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others.
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Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another
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What believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text, whether of prophet or of poet, expands for whatever we can put into it, and even his bad grammar is sublime.
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Most of us who turn to any subject we love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within, as the first traceable beginning of our love.
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